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TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



3y 6 *)&^ 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL: 



WITH 



NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



BY 

john'codman. 




NEW YORK: 
JAMES MILLER, PUBLISHER, 

647 Broadway. 

1872. 

0/ 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1872, 
By JAMES MILLER, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



TO 



MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER, 

WHO HAVE SO OFTEN BEEN MY COMPANIONS ON THE OCEAN 
AND IN FOREIGN LANDS, 

Jjoutremr of our ij^mt to |jrasU 

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND 
EDITION. 



AMERICAN 



There have been some changes since the fir§t edi- 
tion ot this work was published. 

St. Thomas has been devastated by earthquakes 
and hurricanes ; the Paraguayan war has come to 
an end; slavery is being abolished in Brazil. 
Otherwise, the value of the book, whatever that 
may be, remains the same. 



CONTENTS. 

* 

CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Commencement of the Voyage. — Sailors' Superstitions. — 
Tossing in the Gulf Stream. — Effects of Sea-sickness. 

— Arrival at St. Thomas. — Condition of the Negroes. 

— Results of Emancipation. — Female Coal-carriers. — 
A Black Squall. — The Captain in Peril. — Rescue by 

an African Goddess n 

CHAPTER II. 

Climate of St. Thomas. — Yellow Fever. — Modes of 
Travelling. —A Ride to the Hills. — A Little Den- 
mark. — Visit to Santa Anna. — His Appearance and 
Conversation. — His Prophecies. ........ 22 

CHAPTER III. 

Trade at St. Thomas. — Departure on the Voyage. — 
Passing the Islands. — Ocean Currents. — Crossing the 
Equator. — Visit from Neptune. — The South American 
Coast. — Arrival at Pernambuco. — Pleasant Surprise. 

— Passage to Rio de Janeiro. — Sale of the Steamer. — 
Change of Flags 31 

CHAPTER IV. 

Effect of the Telegraph. — Distant Places brought near. — 
Brazil still remote. — Increasing Interest in the Country. 



(5) 



6 



CONTENTS. 



— Various Descriptions thereof. — Agassiz and Fletch- 
er. — Origin of the present Work 

CHAPTER V. 

Climate of Rio de Janeiro. — Intense Heat of the Weath- 
er. — Trips to Santos. — The Sea Breeze. — Refreshing 
Change. — Beauty of the Coast. — Configuration of the 
Country. — Rivers of the Table Land. — Island of St. 
Sebastian. — A Terrestrial Paradise. — Dream-land. . 



CHAPTER VI. 

Santos. — A quiet City. — Noise banished. — Advan- 
tages unimproved. — Impediments to Commerce. — 
Brazilian Want of System. — Swarms of Office-holders. 

— Bribery and Corruption. — Incessant Rains. — A 
Dutchman in Despair 

CHAPTER VII. 

A Decayed Town. — Brighter Prospects. — Cultivation of 
Cotton in Brazil. — Advantages therefor over the United 
States. — Mutations in Planting. — Cotton, Coffee, Su- 
gar. — Opportunities to make a Fortune. — Primitive 
Modes of Conveyance. — Mules and Muleteers. — Cru- 
elty to Animals 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Railroads in Brazil. — Natural Obstacles Encountered. — 
Dom Pedro Segundo Railroad. — A Stupendous Work. 

— Excursion by Rail to San Paulo. — Precipitous 
Grades. — Frightful Chasms. — Queer Sensations. — 
Aspects of Nature in the North and South. — City of 



CONTENTS. 

San Paulo. — Institutions of Education. — Return to 
the Plains 

CHAPTER IX. 

Trip on the Dom Pedro Segundo Railroad. — American 
and English Engineering Compared. — Dismal Swamp. 
— Terminus of the Road. — Future Extension. — A 
Negro-loving Philanthropist. — Laziness and Cunning 
of the Negroes. — Unprofitable Servants. — The Plan 
a Failure 



CHAPTER X. 

A Brazilian Plantation under Yankee Management. — 
Description of the Fazenda. — Sunshine and Shade. — 
Brazilian Cookery. — Ride over the Estate. — Working 
of the Negroes. — Freedom and Slavery. — Compara- 
tive Advantages and Disadvantages. — Moral Reflec- 
tions 



CHAPTER XI. 

Cultivation of Mandioca. — Its Importance to Brazil. — 
Process Of Manufacturing it, — An old Roman Catholic 
Chapel. — Negro Worship therein. — Muscular Piety. 

— Barbarous versus Fashionable Devotions. — Return 
to the City 

CHAPTER XII. 

Wearisome Monotony. — Visit to an Imperial Domain. 

— History of the Estate. — Incidents of the Journey. — 
Hard Supper and harder Beds. — A Morning Ride. — 
Golden Fruit. — The Estate of Santa Cruz. — The Em- 



8 



CONTENTS. 



peror's Wines. — Bad Economy. — Splendid View from 
the Dome. — Inspection of the Palace 93 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Imperial Philanthropist. — Giving the Black Man a 
fair Chance. — School of Negro Children. — Music by 
a Juvenile Band. — Compensations in Life. — Failure 
of the Santa Cruz Experiment. — A Sanitary Scheme. 

— The Emperor's Obstinacy. — Cultivation of Tea in 
Brazil. — Fruit Gardens 103 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Rival Beauties of Nature. — Bays of Naples and Rio de 
Janeiro. — Description of the Latter. — Sublimity of a 
Thunder Storm in the Bay. — Ascent of Mountains near 
Rio. — Adventure of two British Middies. — A Shrewd 
Dentist. — Sharp Practice. — Summer Resorts. — Route 
to Petropolis. — Pleasant Illusion. — A Sea of Fog. . 109 

CHAPTER XV. 

Petropolis and its People. — The Palace and Gardens. — 
*The Coffee Trade. — A Profitable Road. — Among the 
Rivers. — Paying a Visit. — A Pleasant Drive. — A Bit 
of Sentiment. — Change of Carriages. — Plague of 
Flies. — Unwelcome Companions. — Jubilant Negroes. 

— A Jolly Englishman. — Mark Tapley outdone. . . .118 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Immigration to Brazil from the Southern States. — Con- 
tradictory Accounts. — Benefit to the Country. — Evils 
of Amalgamation. — Swiss, German, and French Set- 



CONTENTS. 



9 



tiers. — A White Slave Trade. — Islanders returning 
Home. — A Pleasant Picture 129 

CHAPTER XVII. 

History and Government of Brazil. — Unquiet Condition 
of the Spanish-American States. — Government of the 
Country by the Portuguese. — Emigration of the Royal 
Family to Brazil. — Their Return to Portugal. — Inde- 
pendence Declared. — Abdication of the First Emper- 
or. — Accession of the Present Ruler. — Powers of the 
Emperor and me Parliament 138 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Monroe Doctrine. — Forms of Government. — For- 
eign Enterprise in Brazil. — Improvement of the Cap- 
ital. — Gratitude to a Benefactor. — Iron-clads and Tor- 
pedoes. — A " Confederate " Speculation. — A " Slow " 
People. — The three Professions. — Adaptation of Re- 
ligions. — Missionary Effort in Brazil 143 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Influence of the Catholic Religion. — Its Power in Bra- 
zil. — Character of its Ceremonies. — Morals of Clergy 
and People. — Illustrative Anecdote. — Mixed Blood. — 
The Census. — Slaves Drifting Southward. — Extent of 
Coffee Cultivation. — Political Parties. — Anti-Slavery 
and Republicanism. — Succession to the Throne. — 
Character of the Emperor 150 

CHAPTER XX. 

The War with Paraguay. — Disappointment and Dis- 
couragement. — Religious Toleration. — Festival of St. 



10 



CONTENTS. 



George. — A Military Saint. — Rank and pay. — His 
Saintship Tried and Punished. — The Emperor in Farce. — 
Brazilian Superstitions 161 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Religion as an Amusement. — Habits of Brazilian La- 
dies. — Female Education. — Women in Low Estimation. 
— A Comical Mistake. — The Steward's Blunder. — No 
Fish on Friday. — A Good-natured Bishop. — Light Pen- 
ance. — Professors and Students. — Source of Brazilian Vice. 
— Theatricals in Rio de Janeiro 170 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Personal Observations. — Writers on Brazil. — Ewbank, 
Fletcher, Agassiz. — Inducements to settle there. — 
Southern Coasting Trade. — Unsuccessful Attempt to 
Re-open it. — Sale of Steamer Tejuca, and Return Home. 
— Southern Colonists in Brazil. — Drain of Men and 
Money by the War. — Dangers to flow therefrom. — A 
Word of Caution 179 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Abolition of Slavery in Brazil. — Free Labor and Free Trade 
for all the World. — The Slave Trade Twenty Years ago. 
— England's Disinterestedness. — The Necessity of obtain- 
ing Laborers from Africa 187 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Plan of Emancipation. — Kindly Relation between Masters 
and Slaves. — Intercession and Forgiveness. — Future Wel- 
fare of the Freedmen considered. — Du Chaillu's estimate 
of the Negro Race. — Conclusion 199 

Notes on the Paraguayan War 205 



Appendix. 



215 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



CHAPTER I. 



Commencement of the Voyage, — Sailors' Superstitions. — 
Tossing in the Gulf Stream. — Effects of Sea-sickness. — 
Arrival at St. Thomas. — Condition of the Negroes. — 
Results of Emancipation. — Female Coal- Carriers. — A 
Black Squall. — The Captain in Peril. — Rescue by a?i 
African Goddess. 



N Friday, the 2d of December, 1864, the steamer 



V-X "Cotopaxi" lifted her anchor and proceeded to 
sea, from New York. All the world knows that 
Friday is an " unlucky day." I should be ashamed 
to admit a belief in the superstition, but I will con- 
fess that if I had the choice of a sailing day, it would 
not be Friday. A sufficient reason is, its depressing 
influence upon a crew when any accident occurs. 
If it be a serious one, calling upon all their energies 
to save the ship, one last effort, which might have 
been successful, may not be made, because of the 




(ii) 



12 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



remembrance that " she sailed on Friday." The in- 
fluence of the day was not perceptible upon the 
comfort and pleasure of the voyage to St. Thomas. 
The passengers were generally tropic birds, who had 
flown to the north for a summer visit, and were 
driven home by the first blasts of winter. There 
were some pretty Spanish girls among them, who 
were returning to Porto Rico. With them the young 
gentlemen managed to while away the passage of a 
week so agreeably, that they wished it might have 
been a month or a year. 

On the second day after leaving New York, we 
entered the Gulf Stream. As the ship was light, 
and her coal stowed below, she was excessively 
uneasy ; for the wind had freshened into an easterly 
gale, and a boiling cross-sea was the consequence. 
Passengers and dishes, negro waiters and baggage, 
were knocked about indiscriminately. Lamps were 
upset, and the oil mingled with the water as prayers 
mingled with curses. " O Lord," prayed old Mrs. 
M., " have mercy upon us ! Here we are, in the 
Gulf Stream, at the mercy of the winds and waves, 
and the captain has gone to sleep ! O Lord, have 
mercy on us ! " Libellous old woman, to tell the 
good Lord such a story about me ! Was I not, at the 
moment you gave utterance to this, — was I not then 
in the state-room next to yours, holding the head of 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



13 



the charming Matilda, and telling the lovely Rosita 
that there was no danger, notwithstanding all your 
noise? 

There is no better master of ceremonies on ship- 
board than sea-sickness. It is a leveller of all dis- 
tinctions. An immediate intimacy springs up among 
a crowd of passengers, which is promoted by the 
absence of all those artificial barriers which society 
on shore has erected to keep social intercourse with- 
in bounds. Sea-sickness demolishes all these at a 
blow. Hoops, head-dresses, and sometimes false 
teeth, disappear for the time being, and ladies 
change from dolls to women. Age and youth are 
much alike then in appearance and in attractions. 
Thus it was that my attention to the lovely Spanish 
girls was purely Platonic and philanthropic. I would 
have done as much for Mrs. M., if she had not in- 
sulted me in her devotions. 

Having been thus introduced to each other in the 
Gulf Stream, the acquaintance of the passengers 
ripened into friendship, with a dash or so of love, 
under the genial influences of the balmy trade- 
winds, and of that lovers' lantern, which, from time 
immemorial, has hung in the heavens for their theme 
of poetry. A few musical instruments and many 
musical voices contributed to the pleasure of all, as 
we danced merrily along over the silver-crested waves. 



4 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL 



The miseries of the Gulf Stream were fcrgotten, and 
those who there looked back upon the comforts of 
home, envious of the friends they had left behind, 
were now happy in their own enjoyment, con- 
gratulating themselves upon escaping the winter 
which others were obliged to endure. Thus pleas- 
antly passed the last five days of our passage. On 
the morning of the 9th of December, the high lands 
of St. Thomas and Porto Rico hove in sight, and 
after threading the somewhat intricate channel to the 
eastward of the latter island, we entered the harbor 
of " Charlotte Amelie," on the south side of St. 
Thomas, and anchored soon after noon. 

St. Thomas is a Danish possession, and with Santa 
Cruz and a few rocky islets, most of which are un- 
inhabited, constitutes the great West Indian territory 
of the large and important kingdom of Denmark. 
Santa Cruz may still be called a Danish island, where 
the Danish language is spoken. From its fertile 
soil a considerable revenue is derived for the Danish 
crown. Those of our passengers who were bound 
thither to spend the winter according to their custom, 
described it as almost a paradise, with a luxuriant 
vegetation and a salubrious climate, so that we could 
not but regret that it was not in our power to pay it 
at least a flying visit. The communication between 
the islands is, however, irregular and uncertain, for 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



15 



lack of steamers. It is confined to small schooners, 
which sometimes make the passage across in a few 
hours, and sometimes in a few days. From all that 
we could learn, the island is a very desirable residence 
in the winter for invalids, and the line of steamers to 
Rio de Janeiro, touching at St. Thomas, being es- 
tablished, Santa Cruz will doubtless become a fash- 
ionable resort. 

The Island of St. Thomas, though small in extent, — 
about fifteen miles long and five miles wide, — contains 
a great deal of arable and fertile soil, little of which 
is now cultivated. The inhabitants depend upon the 
neighboring Island of Porto Rico for nearly all their 
cattle, poultry, fruit, and vegetables. Before slavery 
was abolished, not only did St. Thomas supply all 
these for their own consumption, when the population 
far exceeded the present, but it produced thousands 
of hogsheads of sugar, molasses, and rum for ex- 
portation. Riding over the island, we constantly 
passed the ruins of plantation-houses and sheds, of 
sugar-mills and distilleries. The negroes are said 
to have been well treated, and not overworked, and 
were, therefore, in accordance with what was con- 
sidered their place upon the scale of creation, in the 
possession of such happiness as their limited faculties 
would permit them to enjoy. They have now nearly 
disappeared fro 11 the back country. A few miserable 



1 6 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

wretches remain, scattered here and there, who live 
upon wild fruits and roots, and by thieving. When 
these resources fail, they descend to the town and 
obtain employment, which they can always do with 
ease. They will work long enough, and no longer 
than is necessary to insure them against starvation for 
a month or so ahead, and then they return to their 
huts. Labor is at all times remunerative in the town, 
and it is mainly on this account that the plantations 
are universally abandoned, as the planters have found 
it useless to compete with the slave labor of Porto 
Rico, or the free labor of Santa Cruz, where no 
such facilities for obtaining high wages are enjoyed 
by the blacks. 

St. Thomas, from its situation in the group of 
Windward Islands (being in the track of trade 
between Europe and the other West India Islands, 
Mexico, Central America, and the Spanish Main), 
cannot be otherwise than of great commercial im- 
portance. Its harbor is the best in all the Wind- 
ward Islands, and is secure from the danger of the 
terrible hurricanes which prevail chiefly in the sum 
mer and autumn. For these reasons, whenever a 
ship is heard of in distress anywhere upon the broad 
Atlantic, the next news from her may be expected 
from St. Thomas. When the sails are blown to 
shreds, the pump-bolts worn with friction, and the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



17 



crew " used up," the captain is at length discouraged 
and down-hearted with useless beating and banging to 
the westward. Then, in a tone of despair, he gives the 
order, " Up helm and square away for St. Thomas." 
Down glides the tired ship through the fairy regions 
of the gentle trades, where the zephyrs of eternal 
summer blow. The captain, passengers, and crew 
creep out into sunshine, and as the ship rolls along 
under her tattered rags, they spread themselves lazily 
upon the decks, and dream dolce far nienteAy of 
pineapples, oranges, bananas, and all the number- 
less luxuries of the tropics. The underwriters at 
home, when they hear of it, sleep with nightmares on 
their breasts, and with visions of poverty on their 
brains. 

The discharging and reloading of these vessels 
in distress furnish employment for hundreds of 
negroes. Many of the more intelligent are en- 
gaged upon the repairs. All are well paid, as the 
enormous profits gained by the contractors' agents 
and mechanics enable them to share a part of their 
gains with their laborers. For the most common 
work the pay is one dollar and a quarter per day 
in silver. 

The work upon coal at St. Thomas is done ex- 
clusively by women ; and when the number of 
steamers calling at this port, and of ships which 
2 



iS 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



bring their supplies, is considered, the labor which 
the women perforin is almost incredible. When 
we were ready for our coal, and the stages rigged, 
these women threw into the hold on the first day 
over three hundred tons. Each of them brought 
upon her head a basket of the average weight of 
eighty pounds. They came in single file, in one 
continual stream, like an army of black ants. 
As they dumped the contents of their baskets, they 
passed around the hatchways, and returned to the 
dock by the other plank of the stage, avoiding those 
who were coming on board. Most of them were 
horrid hags. The absence of good-looking women 
among them is readily accounted for by the loose 
morality of the people, which enables such to support 
their existence in better accordance with their own 
tastes. In our country we have heard much of the 
licentiousness emanating from slavery. It remains to 
be seen if the morals of our blacks will be improved 
by its abolition. If there was greater depravity in St. 
Thomas in the days of bondage than now, a degree 
of comparison beyond the superlative must be used 
to express it. With the exception of these women, 
who were too ugly for such employment as others 
found most congenial, and v r ere accordingly used as 
beasts of burden, it is not far from the truth to say 
that every black woman on the island is a prostitute. 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



19 



There are exceptions to all rules ; and when I speak 
of the seventy-five women employed on the " Coto- 
paxi," I do not include as among the uglies the tawny, 
shining, bright-eyed, straight-limbed combination of 
the African Venus and the Grecian Minerva, Joanna. 
What though she carried a basket of coal upon her 
head — it was a crown of black diamonds there ! 
though her classical only garment was but a strip 
of gunny cloth encircling her loins — it left un- 
adorned nature free to display the charms of her 
rounded contour. Joanna, my African princess, 
decked with the shining dust from the gems of 
Newcastle and of Cardiff! was I in love with thee? 
No ; but I am grateful ; and gratitude to woman is 
best shown by praising her personal charms. 

Some of the women brought more dirt than coal in 
their baskets. For a time I remonstrated with the 
contractor, who still persisted in sending on board 
this refuse of the coal-yard. Without reflecting upon 
the excitable nature of women in general, black wo- 
men in particular, and of seventy-five black women 
combined, I went upon the loading stage and at- 
tempted to arrest the further entrance of the Ama- 
zons. I stood merely upon the defensive. But they 
were not to be stopped in this way. One lady 
pushed a lady against me ; another pushed her ; till, 
losing the equipoise of the baskets, several of them 



20 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



went over into the water together. With the splash of 
the coal there went up simultaneously a tremendous 
black squall — seventy-five women became seventy- 
five Hecates ; and these were seemingly multiplied 
into seven hundred and fifty hell-cats ! The white 
overseer came running on board, and besought me 
to go below, for the attacking column was pressing 
on to the decks, each virago with a lump of coal in 
her hand ; so that my days seemed to be numbered. 
In such a crisis, reason quickly balances different 
courses of action. Run or stay? Run! If there 
were seventy- five men in front of one, there were 
illustrious precedents in the Union and rebel ranks 
for " retreating in good order." Run ! Retreat be- 
fore one woman in a matrimonial battle? Yes, 
occasionally — generally — I may say, always. But 
in this case, where I had engaged myself for life to 
no such obedience — no ! never ! So I stood my 
ground, — my deck, — fronting the glaring eyes of 
the women, and the uplifted missiles of coal. The 
storm was about to burst, when Joanna threw her- 
self before me, and stretching forth her arms, as when 
the form of Webster or of Clay arose before the chat- 
tering magpies of the Senate,' she produced silence 
ere she spoke a syllable. Then she began with an 
eloquence of words and of gesticulation which, as 
it ran on in a stream like that of a leaping cascade, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



21 



caused one lump of coal after another to drop. Rage 
changed to hysterics ; hysterics, like the after-squalls 
of a gale, subsided with gentle showers to a calm, 
and all was peace. The women went again to their 
work. The contractor sent us no more dirt, and a 
substantial expression of gratitude to my deliveress 
was not wanting on my part. 

We were told that, a few weeks before, on account 
of some insult, real or fancied, offered to one of the 
women by an officer of a Spanish gunboat, which 
was coaling at this wharf, four or five hundred of 
these female savages, who were at work on different 
vessels, dropped their baskets, rushed on board the 
man-of-war, and obliged the whole crew to take to 
their boats, some of them being severely wounded. 



22 



CHAPTER II. 

Climate of St. Thomas. — Tellow Fever. — Modes of Travel- 
ling. — A Ride to the Hills. — A Little Dejimarh. — Visit 
to Santa Anna. — His Appearance and Co?iversation. — 
His Prophecies. 

ALTHOUGH it was now the month of December, 
the weather was intensely hot. We were left 
to imagine what it might be in summer. The town is 
situated at the head of a small bay, the entrance to 
which is from the south, so that the sun, striking 
upon the glassy water in front, and reflecting from the 
high hills in the rear, which entirely shut off north and 
east winds, makes the little settlement the focus of his 
direct and inverted rays. Yellow fever is an annual 
visitant, and is merciless in its attacks upon strangers. 
Even now it had not entirely disappeared, for it pre- 
vailed among the shipping, some of the vessels having 
lost their entire crews. 

There are about fifteen thousand inhabitants upon 
the island, most of whom are concentrated in the 
town. A long, narrow street runs by the water 
side, with warehouses and wharves on one hand, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



23 



and retail shops upon the other. All the business 
is transacted here. Three little hills are in the back- 
ground, towards which run steep alleys, some of them 
cut into steps, and all of them impassable by carriages. 
Of these, there are not more than a half dozen on the 
island. What little travelling is done, is upon horses 
or mules. Behind these three hills, one of which is 
surmounted by the governor's palace, and the others 
clustered upon by the wealthier inhabitants, rise the 
high peaks, upon which graze the only cattle that are 
kept on the island, and where a few gentlemen, not 
too lazy to climb, have perched themselves and their 
families, with a due regard to health. 

Mr. Sonderburg, who lived upon the highest point of 
St. Thomas, asked us to breakfast with him one morn- 
ing. The traveller goes to Europe and finds his en- 
joyment in the Louvre, and in the palaces and galleries 
of Florence and of Rome. A thousand times more do 
I prefer such a morning's ride after a week's voyage. 
The freshness of the open air, instead of the confined 
atmosphere of a palace ; the song of the birds, instead 
of the rustling of catalogues and of dresses ; the clatter 
of hoofs, instead of the noiseless carpet tread ; and, 
above all, the great panorama of nature — the sun ris- 
ing from his water-bed, shaking off the drops in slant- 
ing showers, then breaking out and multiplying himself 
a million times in rain and dew-drops, throwing ever- 



2 4 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



varying shadows and streams of light from mountains 
into valleys, and over the waves — how immeasurably 
superior is such enjoyment to the admiration of the 
best imitation of it with paints and brush upon a few 
feet of canvas ! 

It was something, too, upon arrival at the cottage 
on the hill, to forget the woolly heads, and the taw- 
ny, yellow, molasses-tinted faces of the hot plains 
below, and in the fresh air of the mountains to see 
the brown hair of the pretty wife of our host blow- 
ing away from her blue eyes, like sun-lit clouds 
chased over spots of clear sky. Here they lived all 
the year, and found their enjoyment in health and 
good air, and in the cultivation of the ground, upon 
which, in his leisure from business, Mr. Sonderburg 
employed himself, and had succeeded in producing 
peaches, strawberries, cherries, and all the vegeta- 
bles of temperate climes. "Not that he cared for 
them," he said, " but they made him think he was 
in Denmark" 

Upon one of the three little hills of which I have 
spoken, there lived a man illustrious or notorious, as 
his friends or his enemies may estimate his character. 
Robinson, in his " History of the Chieftains of Mex- 
ico," published in 1848, devotes a large space to him, 
and sums up all with, " Such is Santa Anna, whether 
good or bad — what his country has made him. A 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



25 



chapter of his history has yet to be written, which will, 
perhaps, display him in yet more brilliant colors ; or, 
it may be, record another reverse, from which he will 
be unable to recover himself." His unfortunate coun- 
try, where anarchy has reigned more than rulers or 
people, has not been favorable to the growth of politi- 
cal virtue, if there is such a thing anywhere. Of the 
thirteen generals whose lives are sketched in the little 
book referred to, no one, unless it be Iturbide, seems 
to have been actuated by real principles of honor or 
honesty. Even he, like Caesar, was ambitious, and, 
like him, was murdered by the friends who once 
cringed at his throne. 

Another chapter, comprising a period of seventeen 
years, can be written in the history of Santa Anna, 
and it would tell of him in brilliant colors again and 
again ; many times would it tell of reverses from 
which he has recovered, and it may close with one 
from which it would seem that he will be unable to 
recover himself. But he may yet emerge from his re- 
tirement ; it is not too late for one more chapter to be 
written, that may display him in his most brilliant 
colors at his death. 

When the French invaded Mexico, Santa Anna was 
sent into exile ; and he had chosen St. Thomas for his 
place of retirement — for what possible reason no one 
can imagine. It was not because of its climate, which 



26 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



is bad ; nor for its luxuries and gayeties, of which there 
are none ; nor could it be from motives of economy, 
for he is rich, and is not niggardly. It was not because 
he was among friends, for he was sometimes hissed 
when he appeared in the streets. Seldom, however, 
does he leave his own grounds. It was said by the 
virtuous gentlemen in town, whose means are not ade- 
quate to wholesale licentiousness, that he had a harem ; 
and it struck me that their hatred of him w r as partly 
made up of envy. I had a curiosity to see the man, 
and accordingly sent a servant with a note, saying that 
the captain of the American steamer just arrived would 
esteem it an honor to be received by His Excellency, 
and asking him at what hour he would be disengaged. 
To this I received a reply, couched in true Spanish 
courtesy of language. As translated, — 

" December 12, 1864. 
" Dear Sir : In reply to your polite note of to-day, 
I have the pleasure to say that, recognizing your deli- 
cate attention, I shall have the greater satisfaction in 
seeing you in this (yoztr) house, at five o'clock this 
afternoon. 

"Without more particulars, I subscribe myself, at- 
tentively, 

" Yours, faithfully, Q. B. S. M., 

" A. L. de Santa Anna." 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



27 



I accordingly presented myself, accompanied by one 
of our passengers, at the hour appointed, and was 
received by his secretary, in a well-furnished parlor 
of his modest, but large and commodious one-story 
house. In a few moments the general came in, 
walking so easily without the aid of a cane, that it 
was impossible to distinguish his natural from his ar- 
tificial leg. His carriage was military and erect, and 
he had the appearance of excellent health and condi- 
tion. He is rather over than under six feet in height, 
and does not stoop at all. He wore white pantaloons 
and a dress coat with brass buttons. Notwithstanding 
the extreme heat, he kept this buttoned nearly to 
the throat. He w T as neatly shaven, and evidently just 
from his toilet, where some rejuvenating compound 
had blackened his hair. His complexion is rather 
dark, his eye piercing, but kindly, and his mouth firm- 
ly compressed, but not stern. When in conversation, 
his features were animated, and even handsome. 
There was nothing in his physiognomy to indicate a 
tyrant, brute, or sensualist. He extended his hand 
with great cordiality, and, by his affable manner, 
caused us to feel so much at home that there was no 
barrier to conversation. This took an extensive range, 
commencing with affairs at home, which were intro- 
duced by giving him some papers with the latest 
news of the war. I must accuse him of a little disin- 



2S 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



genuousness, for he declined to converse in English, 
from alleged inability to speak the language ; and thus 
forced me into Spanish, which I spoke very imper- 
fectly indeed ; but he was kind enough to utter his 
words slowly and distinctly, so that we might under- 
stand all that he said. Perhaps it was as well, for it 
placed the burden of the talk upon him, where we 
wished it to be. 

" I am a poor exile," he said ; " but from my little 
watch-tower of St. Thomas I look all around." Then, 
sweeping the horizon with his arm, and pointing to 
the north-west, he continued : "I see the people of 
your great republic. They were once my enemies. 
I wish now that, instead of fighting among them- 
selves, they and we were united to drive European 
despotism away from America." And his clenched 
fist came down upon the table, so that the whole room 
rattled. His feelings were clearly with the North, and 
he believed that the North would be finally victorious, 
but that " the Union would not be restored. It would 
be subjugation under military despotism. Over there 
in Europe," he continued, as he pointed to the north- 
east, " I see them disputing, and fighting a little. That 
does not concern us. They fight about their eternal 
balance of power, which never stays balanced. Let 
the big dogs and little dogs fight. Down there in 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



2 9 



South America, the Spaniards and Peruvians are quar- 
relling. It will not amount to much. It will soon be 
settled." And then he reverted to Mexico, discours- 
ing with mingled sadness and humorous irony upon 
the condition of affairs there He looked upon the 
Austro-French empire as a very temporary affair. 
He described his ejection most amusingly. " Those 
French are a very polite people," said he ; " very 
polite indeed. We talk, you know, of everything 
4 a su disposition ' to our friends, but we don t mean 
that literally. They do. That Bazaine told me that 
a sea voyage would conduce to my health, and he 
furnished me with a steamer. He told me to go where 
I pleased, but not to come back to Mexico. That was 
the only condition the pleasant fellow made. Look 
here," he added, his voice, face, manner, everything 
changing him to another man, "perhaps I may yet 
have the opportunity of reciprocating such atten- 
tions I " 

Perhaps he will reciprocate. Revolutions are no 
new things in Mexico. "Another chapter has yet 
to be written." Santa Anna is not yet too old for the 
battle of life. His sixty-five years sit lightly upon him, 
and with his wooden leg he may yet dance over the 
graves of his enemies. I have nothing to say of the 
character of Santa Anna. There are better and worse 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



men than he, undoubtedly ; but he is a pleasant gen 
tleman, and I thank him for his kind reception, and 
for two hours of his agreeable conversation, although 
I felt a little vexed when I heard afterwards that he 
understood English perfectly well. 



CHAPTER III. 



Trade at St. Thomas. — Departure on the Voyage. — Passing 
tJie Islands. — Ocean Currents. — Crossing the Equator. — 
Visit from Nefitune. — The South American Coast. — Ar- 
rival at Pernambuco. — Pleasant Surprise. — Passage to 
Rio de Janeiro. — Sale of the Steamer. — Cha?ige of Flags. 

T T THEN the steamers from Europe, Laguayra, 



V V and Havana meet here, as they sometimes do, 
St. Thomas is quite gay. The news -which they bring 
seems to be of immense importance to everybody. 
The little six-by-four newspaper comes out extra, and 
the hotels, two of which are very good and well kept, 
reap of the harvest. By the establishment of merely 
nominal duties and slight entrepot charges, Denmark 
has made this island the commercial exchange of the 
West Indies. Upon the true principle of small profits 
and large business she has acted, and thus made St. 
Thomas a much more profitable colony than when it 
was at the height of its agricultural prosperity. At 
this time, shortly preceding the Christmas holidays, 
there were swarms of traders, mostly Jews, who had 
come from all the leeward Islands, Venezuela, and 




3 3 



TEN MONTH! IN BRAZIL. 



Mexico, to make their purchases. There is no bet- 
ter proof that all European merchandise can be 
afforded cheaper here than anywhere else ; and the 
importance of steam communication with the United 
States is clearly demonstrated. English, Spanish, and 
an incomprehensible negro patois are the languages 
spoken. The governor, the three officers and seventy 
soldiers (who compose the arm) 7 ), and the collector of 
customs, speak Danish. 

Having received on board all the coal required, we 
left St. Thomas on the 16th of December, to continue 
our voyage. The trade-wind from the eastward was 
very fresh, and the ship, being deeply loaded, made 
but slow progress at first. She was very wet and 
uncomfortable. But the breeze soon moderated, and 
we steamed along through the Caribbean Sea, passing 
close to the southern shore of Martinique, leaving 
Santa Lucia on our starboard hand. Daylight af- 
forded us a near and enchanting view of the well- 
cultivated valleys and extensive plantations of the first 
named island, which charmed still more by contrast 
with the jagged cliffs and the barren volcanic peaks 
of the latter. At night we passed Barbadoes, so 
near to the town of Bridgetown, that we could see 
the lights in the houses, and hear the music which 
the land breeze wafted off for our serenade. And 
then, for ten days, no more land. 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 33 

We traversed the ocean in its most unfrequented 
expanse, for no sailing vessel can make headway 
against the powerful current which sweeps around 
Cape St. Roque, and rushes on till it reaches the 
Gulf of Mexico. The ocean is no unmoved body of 
water, whose only pastime it is to make its wild leaps 
in the storm, and rest from its sport, basking in the 
rays of the sun. It is full of mighty rivers in its 
length and breadth, some moving so slowly that the 
line of their watery banks is imperceptible. Oth- 
ers, like this broad equatorial stream, more rapid as 
its channel narrows at the eastern point of South 
America, and at different times the navigator's hope 
and fear, are distinctly marked. So is the river 
current, w T hich, doubling the Cape of Good Hope, 
gives the Indian Ocean an outlet into the South 
Atlantic. More famous than all is the Gulf Stream, 
which carries the warm water of the tropics so 
rapidly along, that it cannot cool till the polar river 
plunges into it, bearing along its islands of ice. Then, 
from the banks of Newfoundland, the united stream 
is deflected to the south, until reaching the equator, it 
is joined by the now sluggish current from the Cape 
of Good Hope. Uniting with this, and impelled by 
the force of the unfailing trade-winds, the great river, 
in which we find ourselves, rolls on again towards the 
3 



34 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



American continent, and thus the circuit of the ocean 
streams is complete. 

Approaching the South American shore, where 
the Amazon and the Orinoco pour their floods into 
the sea, we observed the discolored water before 
" seeing the land. We passed through a fleet of logs 
and uprooted trees, and perceptibly experienced the 
force of the current which pushes the ocean from the 
coast. The salometer also indicated a greater fresh- 
ness of the water, though this was not apparent to 
the taste. 

On the evening of the 27th December we crossed 
the equator. Hints had been given, for some days 
before, that Neptune would pay the ship a visit, 
and that the customary ceremonies of the occasion 
might be expected. As these have been so often 
described, a repetition of particulars would be of little 
interest. 

The divinity was personated by one of the stoutest 
seamen, who had got himself up admirably for the 
character, with a wig of Manila hemp, and a shaggy 
garment, which completely disguised him. Hailing 
the ship from under the bowsprit, he was invited to 
come on board. He accordingly marched aft with a 
pair of grains, which well represented a trident, in his 
hands, and accepted a chair and a glass of wine upon 
the quarter-deck. Having asked if I had any of his 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



35 



children on board, he received liberty to search for 
them. There was one cockney young gentleman from 
New York, who had been loud in his expressions 
of contempt for Neptune, or for what he might do. 
No barking cur, with a whip held over him, ever 
subsided quicker than did this doughty hero. He 
said no more about whipping Neptune, but meekly 
walked before the awful apparition to his barber's 
shop upon the forecastle. The sight of the tub of 
grease and the iron hoop made him tremble at the 
idea of such lathering and shaving, and he begged to 
be allowed to capitulate. This favor was accorded 
him, and he then took a malicious pleasure in witness- 
ing the sufferings of those victims from among the 
crew who could not, like him, afford the means of 
escape. 

This practice is very generally discontinued. It is 
true that it has sometimes been carried to an extreme 
of roughness ; but, as ordinarily conducted, it has 
been a great source of amusement. The true reason 
for its rare occurrence is, that " the monarch of the 
peopled deck," having no more taste for youthful 
sport, considers every attempt at fun to be an infringe- 
ment of discipline, and because a sailor is considered 
by him a brute, whose business it is to labor, and 
nothing else. Many captains never can be made to 
realize that " all work and no play makes Jack a dull 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



boy." Such treatment as they too often receive 
causes sailors to seek for their only amusement on 
shore, where, when they " dance," they dearly " pay 
the fiddler." 

In order to escape the course of the current, after 
crossing the mouth of the Amazon, we ran close in to 
the north shore of Brazil, and made the land a little 
to the eastward of Maranham. Thence coasting 
along shore, we had before our eyes a constant pan- 
orama of green lowlands, with a background of blue 
mountains. We could see the cocoanut groves and 
plantain trees which shaded the lazy little fishing 
villages, and occasionally the bare white walls of 
some oven-built town, such as those wherein the old 
Portuguese delighted to roast themselves. They built 
them because they had such at home ; as the Dutch 
built Batavia in a swamp, and dug canals through it, 
because it therefore looked like home ; as English- 
men stuff themselves with roast beef and porter under 
the tropics, because they do so at home. 

As we rounded Cape St. Roque, giving it a wide 
berth on account of the reef, we saw numberless cat- 
amarans. These little rafts are constructed of logs 
lashed together, upon which the adventurous natives 
make long voyages along the coast, and often go far 
out of sight of land in search of fish. As the water 
is always awash over the logs, the crew of three or 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 37 

four men are perched up on what resemble counting- 
house stools, where at least the upper part of their 
bodies can be dry. Baskets for their fish and pro- 
visions are similarly slung out of harm's way. They 
carry a large lateen sail, and in the early morning, 
as they are seen coming out of the harbors, they 
appear like a flock of white gulls upon the water. 
Like them, too, they are shy, and will not allow any 
one to approach them. It is said that their dread of 
strange ships arises from the treatment they have 
sometimes received from the American whalers, who 
frequent this coast. These vessels, being in want of 
men, have been known to run down the little craft 
purposely, and then, under pretence of saving the 
crews, have kidnapped them and impressed them into 
their service. 

On the last day of December, and of the year 1864, 
at ten o'clock A. M., we anchored off the city of Per- 
nambuco. Our object was to obtain a supply of coal 
for ship's use, if it could be advantageously bought. 
The town and its surroundings make a very pretty 
appearance from the sea. As for what is within, we 
had little opportunity for observation. It was an 
intensely hot day, and when we landed it seemed 
like entering a furnace. It is a pleasant thing to 
meet a familiar face in a strange land ; and thus, when 
an old acquaintance, now established in business here, 



3» 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



welcomed us upon the wharf, the unexpectedness of 
the meeting enhanced our gratification. Finding that 
the ship drew too much water to come into the inner 
harbor, and that a long time would be occupied in 
coaling outside, we were obliged to forego our inten- 
tion. So, after a visit of a few hours to Pernambuco, 
we proceeded on the same evening upon our voyage. 
While the purser was busy in the market, looking 
after fruit and vegetables, of which he procured an 
abundant supply, we employed the time in a drive to 
the country house of our friend. Those who live on 
the shore, and were never at sea, cannot realize the 
delight of that hour's drive, of the walk in the shady 
garden, and of the company of trees, fruits, and 
flowers. Look in your books. You will find all 
about Pernambuco — the number of its inhabitants, its 
trade, productions, climate. I know nothing of these 
excepting of the latter, which would have troubled 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Notwithstand- 
ing that, we had a delightful time. Remembrances 
of it, with the delicious fruits, lasted us to Rio de 
Janeiro. Nor in the four days' passage, though the 
bouquets from the lovely little garden began to fade, 
did we forget, or shall we forget, the charming frag- 
ment of a sejour at Pernambuco. 

From Pernambuco to Rio de Janeiro, the distance 
is about eleven hundred and fifty miles. The weather 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



39 



was fine, and nearly calm. Over the smooth sea we 
steamed rapidly along, and on the morning of the 5th 
of January passed under the high headland of 
Cape Frio, as the day broke, throwing its sunlight 
upon the naked peak of the Sugar Loaf, the square 
tower of the Gavia, the crested Corcovado, the pin- 
nacle of Tijuca, and all the familiar mountain faces 
which stand there the sentinels of ages, looking down 
upon the loveliest expanse of water in the world — 
the bay of Rio de Janeiro ! 

There, at noon, we anchored ; and thence, under 
the stars and stripes, the "Cotopaxi" never sailed 
again. She was sold to the Brazilian government. 

Returning to the United States, we sailed again in 
the steamer " Tejuca," arriving in Brazil in the au- 
tumn of 1865. In accordance with the plan proposed, 
all the details of this ship's journal are omitted, as 
uninteresting, until the date at which the subsequent 
narrative begins. 



4° 



CHAPTER IV. 



Effect of the Telegraph. — Distant Places brought near. — 
Brazil still remote. — Increasing Interest in the Country. 

— Various Descriptions thereof. — Agassiz and Fletcher. 

— Origin of the present Work. 



UR estimates of distance have been greatly af- 



V^/ fected by the general introduction of the mag- 
netic telegraph, by which not only the extremes of 
the largest empires, but even continents separated by 
oceans, are enabled to exchange instantaneous com- 
munication. 

While London and San Francisco are thus made 
to seem within easy reach, Brazil, which occupies a 
large portion of our western continent, is yet, practi- 
cally, as distant as the unfrequented islands of the 
Pacific, or the frozen regions of the polar latitudes. 

It is true that a circuitous line of steam navigation 
to Rio de Janeiro has been recently established ; but 
the voyages, though made with a certain degree of 
regularity, are not more rapid than those often accom- 
plished by sailing vessels. The capital of Brazil is 




TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



4 I 



still four thousand eight hundred miles in distance, and 
one month in time, apart from New York. 

Nevertheless, Brazil has latterly attracted no little 
attention in the United States. Scientifically it has 
been explored by the enthusiastic Agassiz ; volu- 
minously it has been described by the imaginative 
Fletcher, as seen through his glasses of couleur de 
rose; and alluringly it has been placed before the 
ruined South of our land, by speculators, who care 
not if the deluded emigrants are ruined again. 

It may be that these few pages, written with no 
pretensions to scientific or literary merit, and with no 
view of gain from " magnificent grants," will be read 
because they are not many. Brevity is a recom- 
mendation to which, in this instance, a fair claim can 
be made. 

My observations have not been so extensive as 
could be wished. Still, they are all that I have to 
offer. There are those who, by a long residence in 
Brazil, should be better qualified to advance opinions 
upon the religion, morality, and pursuits of the peo- 
ple ; but, as has often been observed, writers who are 
disposed to be candid are sometimes totally at variance 
in their judgments, even with the same opportunities 
of life-long observation. 

These are merely the notes of a captain of a steamer, 
trading on the coast of Brazil. They are not made 



42 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

up from books, but from such rambles about city and 
country as time and opportunity permitted, and from 
intercourse with all sorts and conditions of passen- 
gers, with whom it was my fortune to associate at sea. 

The voyages between Rio de Janeiro and Santos, 
sometimes extending to Paranagua, were made be- 
tween the months of January and September, 1866. 
It was not till May, however, that the idea occurred 
to me, that it might be useful to others, as well as 
pastime to myself, to commit these observations to 
paper. 

It is thus that my journal commences somewhat 
abruptly. 



43 



CHAPTER V. 

Climate of Rio de jfa?ieiro. — Intense Heat of the Weather. — - 
Trips to Santos. — The Sea Breeze. — Refreshing Change. 
— Beauty of the Coast. — Configuration of the Country. — 
Rivers of the Table Land. — Island of St. Sebastian. — 
A Terrestrial Paradise. — Dream-Land. 

MAY 6, 1866. — At this season of the year, which 
should correspond with the November of north- 
ern latitudes, instead of the cooler weather we might 
reasonably expect after the terrific and unusual heat 
of the summer months, we are again dissolving. The 
heat in Rio de Janeiro is not to be measured by ther- 
mometers. Indeed, the mercury is seldom above 85 
Fahrenheit ; but there is a humidity in this heated 
atmosphere that kills all oxygen, and makes the air in 
and about the city more oppressive and exhausting 
than my experience can call to mind elsewhere, except- 
ing in Algeria. There, the sirocco was wont to drive 
us to the stone floor of the bath-room, and leave us 
panting like the hart after the water-brook, till the 
three days' agony was over. 

But the African sirocco is only an occasional 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



misery. Here, a similar heat has been constant, 
though less intense, with scarcely an interval since 
our arrival in December. Day after day has been a 
dog-day, as the murky, inactive clouds have hung over 
the city ; and the nights, intolerable on shipboard or 
on shore, so far from bringing relief, have left us un- 
resisting victims to those birds of prey that penetrated 
through the nets where air could scarcely enter. As 
a physician has truly said of this climate, the liver 
must inevitably suffer, for it is obliged to do double 
duty — for itself and for the lungs. 

Our trips to Santos have afforded some relief to this 
lassitude and debility. The moment the bows of the 
ship looked beyond the " Sugar-loaf," an oppressive 
load was removed from the lungs and from the 
brain, and there was a day's vacation for exhausted 
nature. 

If anything could be worse than the air of Rio de 
Janeiro, it was that of Santos ; and we were rejoiced 
to leave that port again, so that in fact the only enjoy- 
ment we had, was at sea. 

Added to the pure air of the ocean there was a supe- 
rior mental tonic. We were exhilarated by the beau- 
tiful and picturesque scenery of the route, embracing 
a view of near and distant mountains, and of a coast 
lined alternately with sterile rocks, wild verdure, and 
cultivated soil. For this distance of two hundred 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



45 



miles, the character of the coast is peculiar to Brazil, 
excepting an occasional variety which enhances the 
charm of the general outline. The meadows from 
the border of the sea stretch back on a level for ten or 
fifteen miles, and then there is an abrupt, sometimes 
almost perpendicular rise to a height of three thou- 
sand feet, to what is called the " Serra." This level 
attained, the generally very even country is some- 
times varied by little hills and valleys, never rising 
nor descending many feet, until it reaches the base 
of the Andes, on the western side of the continent. 

Rivers flow sluggishly along this vast prairie — 
rivers that could be navigated by steamers, if they, 
like the salmon, could jump up thither from the 
ocean. Little do these lazy streams imagine what 
is before them, till, rolling along to the very brink of 
the Serra, they take their tremendous leaps ; and, 
spreading themselves now into broad cascades, then 
into silver threads, and often into scarcely more than 
misty vapor, they tumble and dance over rocks, and 
half float in the air, till they find their level on the 
plains below, and there, gathering their scattered 
waters again, become rivers once more, and, as such, 
surrender themselves to the ocean. 

The high and richly cultivated Island of St. Sebas- 
tian lay in our track, with a channel of one or two 
miles in width between it and the main land. Out- 



4 6 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



side or inside, the distance was nearly the same , 
but, whenever daylight permitted, it was our favorite 
enjoyment to pass through the narrow inland passage. 
Excepting the Bosphorus, there is nothing in my 
memory that equals these shores in loveliness. In 
some respects this strait is even superior to the Bos- 
phorus, though the latter is adorned by palaces and 
kiosks, which are wanting here. But for these we 
have a compensation in the deep, unfading green of the 
tropics, and the innumerable cascades which sparkle 
with silver threads upon the upper rocks. The table- 
land on the summit of the island seems to hold a 
perpetual reservoir of water, and every plantation 
and garden on the slope has its own little river or 
brook. Pretty, too, in the distance, — and it is only in 
the distance that Turkish or Brazilian towns are 
pretty, — are the little villages which hang upon the 
hills, and the abodes of the fishermen upon the shores. 

The island always seemed to us to be a sort of 
dream-land, for there was never a sign of life upon it. 
We passed close to the banks of the channel, fired 
guns, and blew the shrill steam-whistle ; but the only 
response was the echo from the hills. Everything was 
silent, and we wondered how the little brooks dared to 
roll over the stones. No one appeared to work or to 
be active in these pleasure-grounds of the Castle of 
Indolence. Even the fishermen seemed to have no 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



47 



lines, as they leaned dreamily over the sides of their 
canoes, and they would scarcely have moved a paddle 
to save themselves from destruction. They were all 
Brazilians on St. Sebastian, and God treats them as 
He treats the lilies of the field — He lets them grow 
and thrive. 



48 



CHAPTER VI. 



Santos. — A quiet City. — Noise banished. — Advantages 
miimproved. — Impediments to Commerce. — Brazilian 
Want of System. — Svjarms of Office-Jiolders. — Bribery and 
Corruption. — Incessant jRains. — A DutcJnnan in Despair. 

£^ ANTOS is approached by first passing a rocky 



v^7 islet, whereon is a lighthouse, and where, in for- 
mer days, was a semaphoric telegraph station. For 
some reason, notwithstanding that trade has increased, 
the telegraph has been discontinued. Many things 
march backward in Brazil, and among the people 
there is a great dread of improvement. We were ac- 
customed to fire a gun on our arrival in the river ; but 
we were notified not to do so again, under penalty of 
a fine, because it awoke those who were taking their 
siesta. On the last 4th of July, the American admiral, 
wishing to celebrate the day by saluting at every port 
on his station, ordered the United States store-ship 
" Onward" to Santos for this express purpose. Thecom- 
mander was waited upon by the authorities, and at their 
earnest solicitation he consented not to make a noise. 
After rounding the lighthouse island, we enter a 




TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



49 



magnificent bay, at the head of which is a hard beach, 
circling around for miles. Its upper limit is fringed 
by low woods, from which peep out white " chaca- 
ras," or country seats, surrounded by pretty gardens. 
These are the summer residences of the wealthier in- 
habitants, and, as it seemed to us, the only comfortable 
abodes for anybody, either in summer or in winter ; 
for the houses in the town are the opposites of all our 
ideas of dwelling-places, so small, damp, and cheerless 
do they appear. 

Beyond the eastern end of the beach, across the 
river, is the fort, which nominally defends the harbor. 
This work is an antiquated Portuguese pile of brick 
and mortar, which in its best days would scarcely have 
withstood musketry, and is now, of course, useless for 
defence. The river is a narrow stream, not more than 
a quarter of a mile in width, but of sufficient depth 
for the largest class of ships. It winds prettily through 
a low plain, covered with forest and guava trees, till 
the town of Santos is reached, at a distance of seven 
miles from the fort. 

Nature has here supplied every convenience for 
commerce, such as a civilized people would gladly 
accept and improve. In our turn, when it came, the 
steamer was visited, entered, and at last permitted 
to discharge ; and this discharging must needs be 
done at the custom-house wharf, — a privilege which 
4 



5° 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



likewise came in turn, and was of course very un- 
certain. 

I have said that Brazil steps backward ; and she is 
doing this while she professes a wish to " open trade 
and to encourage immigration." Let us take our own 
case as an illustration of the way in which she will be 
likely to accomplish these objects. On a coastwise 
route like this, of two hundred miles, in the United 
States, we could have made the round trip at least 
eight times monthly, receiving and discharging full 
cargoes. Here, owing to no other cause than the 
vexatious impediments offered by the government, we 
could scarcely make three trips in that time. In the 
first place, the custom-house is closed on all holidays 
and saints' days ; and there are holidays many, and of 
saints' days an unknown number, which is continually 
increasing. By and bye, when there come to be more 
than three hundred and sixty-five of them in the calen- 
dar, the days must be divided, one saint taking the morn- 
ing and another the evening. As it is now, the festival 
days only occupy about half the time. On these days 
no business is done. On the secular days the custom- 
house hours, within which ships are permitted to load 
and discharge, are included between seven A. M. and 
four P. M., out of which one hour is taken for break- 
fast and two hours for dinner. However active a crew 
may be, they are obliged to conform to the slow 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 5 1 

movements of the custom-house employees, who make 
a pretence of working at the same time. 

After the loading is completed, there generally 
follows a day's work to clear at the custom-house. 
Thence, after signing a multiplicity of documents, — 
I counted them once ; there were ninety-six, — the 
captain is at length released. After being visited by 
health-boat, police-boat, and guard-boat, we finally 
proceed to sea. When we enter port at the other end 
of our route, the same ceremonies are again to be ob- 
served ; and if the boarding officials are at breakfast, 
we may remain at anchor two or three hours blowing 
off steam, until their convenience is suited. And all this 
nonsense, be it remembered, applies not only to foreign 
trade, but more especially to the coasting trade, which 
Brazil has so recently thrown open to all nations. As 
I was the first to take advantage of the permission, and 
have followed the business for nearly a year, I feel com- 
petent to assure others that, with all the annoyances 
and the small profits, le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle. 

There is no true idea of system or order among the 
Brazilians, at least in public affairs. The post-office 
is quite as badly administered as the custom-house. 
There is no certainty whatever that your letters will 
be despatched, or that your correspondence from home 
will reach you. There is a chance of success, arid 
that is all. Bushels of letters are scattered about in 



52 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



the post-office of Rio de Janeiro. You are invited to 
enter and help yourself ; and it may readily be sup- 
posed that in this way some people find the letters of 
others, if they cannot find any of their own. Some 
years ago, when Mr. Gordon, who had previously 
filled the office of postmaster in Boston, was consul 
here, he offered to place the Brazilian post-office upon 
an American footing, saving, it is to be hoped, the bad 
feature of rotation in office. His well-meant proposal 
was declined. Like the Chinese, the Brazilians cling 
to " olo cussum ; " and it is a very peculiar old custom 
that in part accounts for the vexations of which we 
complain. 

In England and in the United States the relation 
of " godfather," although nominally a very responsi- 
ble trust, is generally a sinecure. There is a promise 
that the child, whose parents thus pay a sort of com- 
pliment to the person who acts as sponsor, shall be 
religiously educated, and shall say his Catechism like 
a good boy, which promise the godfather proposes 
to trouble himself very little in keeping. In Brazil 
this ceremony means a very different thing. The rich 
and influential are begged to assume the honor, and 
can seldom refuse to take upon themselves this obliga- 
tion for their poor relations. They make all sorts of 
religious promises ; but these are interpreted to mean a 
care for the child's advancement in this life. As the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



53 



godfather naturally wishes to accomplish his vows 
with as little expense to himself as possible, what bet- 
ter can he do than to provide the young man, as soon 
as he is of suitable age, with an office under the gov- 
ernment? And if government has not a sufficient 
number of offices at its disposal, how can the influ- 
ence of the Duke, Marquis, Baron, or Comendador 
be retained more easily than by creating new offices 
for new office-holders? Thus these men in office go 
on and multiply, till the cap-bands and stripes are be- 
coming so numerous that the people will soon be like 
the company of a down-east schooner — captain, mate, 
cook, and no crew. And so the system becomes not 
only an expensive arrangement for the Brazilians 
themselves, but likewise a burden and an intolerable 
nuisance to foreigners, and a serious impediment 
in the way of commerce. 

Moreover, it may be readily seen that where so 
many are feeding from the public crib, there must be 
a scarcity of fodder for all. Hence proceed bribery 
and corruption, according to the scale of office, mount- 
ing upwards from a milreas to the colossal figure some- 
times reached at Washington. 

The city of Santos is the principal seaport of the 
province of San Paulo. It was settled at a very early 
period in the history of the country, by the Portuguese, 
who were at no loss to perceive the advantages of its 



54 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



situation for commercial purposes ; and these are all 
the advantages to which it could ever lay claim. 
Nothing but the love of money could entice one to 
live there. It lies on a low, alluvial soil, half the 
time submerged, — so that walking is impracticable, 
— and, for a portion of almost every day, is deluged by 
torrents of rain, which cease for an hour or two only. 
Then comes forth, in this brief interval, a burning sun, 
to exhale the moisture from the spongy ground, and to 
pour down a heat which renders the stifling air little 
better than the fumes from a charcoal furnace. 

I could fully credit the story told of a Dutch captain, 
whose race is generally so phlegmatic. His vessel was 
chartered to load a cargo of coffee, and a certain num- 
ber of " working days " were stipulated for, " rainy 
days not included." It did not suit the convenience 
of the merchant to ship the cargo until the price had 
fallen, which time seemed afar off. And so the honest 
Dutchman remained at his anchor day after day, week 
after week, and month after month ; for it rained so 
often that scarcely a day could be counted against the 
inexorable coffee-dealer. At length the skipper's pipe 
and his patience gave out together, and he became 
raving mad. There was time to obtain a new captain 
from Amsterdam, it is said, before coffee fell and the 
rain ceased to fall. 



55 



CHAPTER VII. 

A Decayed Town. — Brighter Prospects. — Ctcltivation of 
Cottoji in Brazil. — Advantages therefor over the U?iited 
States. — Mutations hi Planting. — Cotton, Coffee, Sugar. 
— Opportunities to make a Fortune. — Primitive Modes of 
Conveyance. — Mules and Muleteers. — Cruelty to Animals. 

SANTOS, with its decayed landing-places and 
dilapidated warehouses, reminds one of New- 
buryport, Salem, and other such towns at home, that 
were once busy commercial marts, but have long since 
lost their trade, and have become neglected and forlorn. 
But now it would seem that a new and brighter era 
may dawm upon the city of Santos. Wherever in the 
world cotton can be grown, its cultivation has received 
an impetus from the late American civil war. Vari- 
ous nations have begun to compete for the cheapest 
production of this absolutely necessary staple, and 
none have a fairer chance of success, in building their 
fortunes upon our ruin, than Brazil, if her people can 
display sufficient energy. The most sanguine planters 
scarcely hoped to do more than to make large profits 
while the war continued ; but they now see an unlim- 



56 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



ited future of prosperity before them. They are quite 
sure that the labor system of the Southern States will 
be much more expensive than heretofore, and that 
this climate, even with free labor, which all anticipate 
eventually, will give them every advantage over us. 
Their reasoning is simple, and not easily refuted. 

For example, in the province of San Paulo, of which 
Santos is the seaport, there is no winter, properly so 
called, although it is within the limits of the southern 
temperate zone. Something is produced from die soil, 
in alternate crops throughout the year, and there are 
generally two crops of cotton annually, or, at least, 
three crops in two years. There is no season in 
which the laborer need remain idle. He can always 
be producing something for his employer or for him- 
self. In either case it is the same, for it enters into 
the cost of raising cotton, as the price of remunerative 
labor. Nor, like the southern negro, whose service 
cannot be made available in the winter, does the 
laborer here require warm clothing, if any at all ; for 
clothing is a luxury indulged in only on Sundays and 
holidays. Slave labor, or free labor, is, then, un- 
deniably cheaper here. Moreover, the expense of 
cultivation is infinitely less with the proper tools, of 
which the Brazilians are so slow to learn the use. 
Cotton with us is planted yearly. Here the plants 
last from five to seven years without renewal. 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 5Jr 

When slavery existed in the United States, cotton 
could be raised for seven cents per pound ; and then 
Cotton was King. What a fall he has had from his 
throne, dragging down his ministers and his immedi- 
ate vassals with him, involving in the ruin those 
who were obliged to dethrone him ! The kingdom of 
Cotton is changed into a world-wide republic. Many 
nations will be the gainers, while we are losers. At 
this time, with our present transition of labor systems, 
it is estimated that cotton cannot be raised for less than 
twenty cents per pound. Doubtless, in the course of 
years, either by the utilization of black labor, which 
the hopes of some anticipate, or by the influx of emi- 
grants, this condition will be improved. But, mean- 
while, the outside world will get a prodigious start ; 
and it is difficult to conceive, that, with all the appli- 
ances we can bring to bear, we can reduce the pres- 
ent cost of production one half — to ten cents. To 
this must be added the internal revenue tax of three 
cents, and the export duty, if our government is so un- 
wise as to place any further restrictions upon industry. 

In this district of San Paulo, cotton can be raised for 
very little more than our present revenue tax and the 
proposed export duty ; and this even with the anti- 
quated tools and the slow energies of Brazilians. In 
many parts of the empire the experiment has proved 
unsuccessful. Especially is this true of the country 



5S 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



near Rio de Janeiro, where the plant is often utterly 
destroyed by worms. 

I know an American gentleman in charge of a large 
fazenda a few leagues from that city, who has lost his 
entire crop for the three years since he commenced 
planting, and whose almost indomitable perseverance 
has been at last forced to succumb. He is now suc- 
cessfully cultivating sugar-cane. Sugar was formerly 
the chief product of the district of San Paulo. It was 
abandoned some years ago, when the world's demand 
for coffee suddenly became so great ; and then the 
cane-fields became green with the beautiful coffee tree. 
At present there is not sugar enough made here to 
supply the wants of a single village. It formed the 
bulk of our cargoes from Rio de Janeiro, whence it 
is reexported, after being landed from Bahia and 
Pernambuco. 

Now, in their turn, the coffee trees in San Paulo are 
neglected, and the fields are white with cotton, des- 
tined to occupy the ground, at least for some years, 
until some other great change comes over the wants 
of the world. 

With this prospect in view there is a splendid future 
for the city of Santos. Already a direct trade is opened 
between that city and Liverpool by the screw steam- 
ers, which touch monthly on their route to and from 
Montevideo. All that is wanted is energy. For 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



59 



Americans, if there are any who can endure the detes- 
table climate, there are sure opportunities offered 
for amassing wealth. 

This city has scarcely more than four thousand 
inhabitants, its population having decreased within 
a few years. The price of land and other real estate 
is just now very low. Emigrants will find it advanta- 
geous to settle near the seaboard, rather than in the 
interior, whence it is so expensive to bring produce -to 
market. This has hitherto been brought for hundreds 
of miles on the backs of mules. It is still necessarily 
thus transported to the city of San Paulo, distant from 
Santos about forty-five miles by the railroad just com- 
pleted. So slow are the Brazilians to see the advan- 
tages of this mode of conveyance, that most of them 
still adhere to the old method of carriage for the 
w 7 hole distance. 

Every mule brings on his back two bags of coffee or 
two bales of cotton. The bags of coffee each weigh 
one hundred and twenty-eight pounds, and the bales of 
cotton one hundred and twelve pounds. They make 
long and slow journeys, averaging about sixteen miles 
per day. 

The entrance of a " troop " of mules into the city is 
a lively sight. They are always preceded by a white 
horse, with a string of bells upon his neck, all the 
mules obediently following this leader. Sometimes 



6o 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



troops of several hundreds arrive on a morning ; 
and again there are days with no arrivals. Most of 
the muleteers are rough, shaggy Western islanders, or 
half Indians. They are finely formed men, with hand- 
some features, but a devilish expression — such as one 
would prefer to meet in town by daylight, rather than 
on the mountains by night. When the pack-saddles 
are taken off, the mules are pitiable objects. The con- 
tinual sawing of their loads for a long journey of hun- 
dreds of miles not only abrades the skin, but grinds 
off the raw flesh down to the very bones. It is hard 
to imagine that self-interest, to say nothing of human- 
ity, can permit such cruelty. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Railroads in Brazil, — Natural Obstacles Encountered, — 
Dom Pedro Segundo Railroad. — A Stupendous Work. — 
Excursion by Rail to San Paulo. — Precipitous Grades. — 
Frightful Ckas?ns. — J^ueer Sensations. — Aspects of Na- 
ture in the North and South. — City of Sa?z Paulo. — In- 
stiiutions of Education. — Return to the Plains, &c. 



T last that inevitable institution, the railroad, has 



jlX. found its way to Brazil, as it will, doubtless, one 
of these days, reach Timbuctoo. In no country has it 
more natural obstacles to contend against than here. 
There are several small railroads in the northern prov- 
inces, running on levels, a few miles from the cities ; 
but there, and at Rio de Janeiro, they have, until 
lately, been content to stop without any effort to 
overcome the hills. 

The first great work undertaken — and it is really 
a stupendous work — was the Dom Pedro II. Railroad. 
By the aid of English capital, and the skill of Ameri- 
can engineers, — the Messrs. Ellison, who should be 
held in everlasting remembrance here, — this road has 
already been carried one hundred and twenty miles 




62 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



into the interior from Rio de Janeiro. A way has 
been found to climb precipices ; bridges have been 
thrown over deep chasms, and solid mountains have 
been tunnelled, in one instance for the distance of two 
miles. No better masonry can be seen in the world ; 
and it is admitted by Europeans and Americans who 
have passed over this line, and are qualified to judge 
of it in comparison with others, that it is a most 
complete triumph of engineering art. 

Another road is just completed, — the one already re- 
ferred to, between Santos and San Paulo, — which will 
do a vast deal to open trade, and will save the back of 
many a poor mule. It is to be continued farther in- 
land ; and mules, if they could pray, — and their 
prayers would have a better chance of being heard 
than those of their drivers, — should pray for its 
speedy extension. 

The road is scarcely yet in running order ; but as 
we were desirous of seeing a work which has been so 
much lauded, and also of visiting the city of San Paulo, 
we accepted the invitation of the superintendent to go 
over the route. Owing to its unfinished condition, 
we could have accomplished the distance much more 
speedily and pleasantly by diligence, or on horseback, 
by a good mountain road ; but we should not have 
seen what we did see under some difficulties. The 
connections were intended to have been made ; but un- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



63 



fortunately they were not made, so that we were thirty 
hours in accomplishing our forty-five miles. We thus 
made a speed, including stops, of one and a half mile 
per hour, which rate it is intended to increase by 
and bye. 

Our first stopping-place was Mugi, a village fifteen 
miles from Santos, and at the end of the low level. 
Making a virtue of necessity, we passed a very 
pleasant afternoon and night at this collection of 
adobe huts. 

At such places, the " vendas" or grog-shops, gen- 
erally do duty as hotels ; but here a German landlord 
has established himself, and really keeps a very com- 
fortable inn. His chief customers are the English 
employees of the road, from whom he makes no little 
profit on beer and brandy. Mr. Sharp, the contractor, 
has a good two-story dwelling-house, which is sur- 
rounded by quite a little settlement of his countrymen. 
The aristocracy consist of Mr. Sharp and a Scotch 
doctor and his family. The plebeians are the engine- 
drivers and understrappers. Glad enough to hear our 
own language spoken, we accommodated ourselves to 
both extremes of society, and thus whiled away our 
time as best we might. 

In the morning we recommenced our journey by 
being drawn up the inclined plane to the H Alto," or 
top of the Serra, which is twenty-seven hundred feet 



6 4 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



above Mugi. This part of the trip is a pleasure 
which, taken once in a man's life, is, as a pleasure, 
sufficient. The grade is one foot in ten, and the 
ascent is effected by stationary engines, four of which 
are placed at nearly equal distances apart, A large 
wire rope is attached to the train, when the invisible 
power, a mile above, commences operations. Slowly 
we begin to move upwards on the track, which winds 
along the brink of an ever-growing precipice. 

Uncomfortable is a very mild word to apply to the 
sensation produced ; and, as we go up, up, up, this feel- 
ing naturally increases — a possible fall being calculated 
to be more and more like annihilation in proportion to 
the ascent gained. These queer sensations arrive at 
their greatest intensity on the last stretch, when, look- 
ing from the window, we perceive a chasm yawning 
beneath, the remembrance of which makes my pen 
quiver even now. 

It is admitted that the road is dangerous. And thus 
it will continue to be for some time, at least until the 
banks settle so that they will not be washed away, as 
they frequently are now, by the heavy rains. Fortu- 
nately the " slides " have taken place when no train 
was upon the track ; but this immunity cannot always 
be counted upon. A passenger must have the un- 
pleasant reflection that he may be called upon to 
" assist " at the first fatal catastrophe. 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



65 



But all these perils — at least for those who have 
never made the ascent before — are more than counter- 
balanced by the exhilaration of the mountain air, and 
by the wonderful magnificence and beauty of the 
scenery. The fields below " stand dressed in living 
green ; " the mountain-tops, the hill-sides, and the 
valleys are all alike of this color, in different shades 
of their own verdure, and all perpetually changing, 
as the dark or fleecy clouds throw their shadows 
over the scene. Even the rocky cliffs and precipices, 
steep down for hundreds and even thousands of feet, 
scarcely show their barrenness, being covered, as are 
also the forest trees, with thick-hanging parasitic flow- 
ers. All else that Nature deigns to wear to vary and 
display more forcibly her everlasting mantle of green, 
are the silver-white ribbons of the streams, which 
scatter themselves far and wide over the slopes, and 
add another charm to what would already seem per- 
fection. 

There are landings on this great staircase, which we 
ascended, where the cars are attached to the engines 
above. Each of these engines turns a shaft, around 
which is wound the wire cable, that draws up one 
train while it gently lowers another. These " down 
trains " are not absolutely necessary, but w 7 hen conve- 
nient they are used as aids to the engines. 

Just before we reached the summit, heavy clouds 
5 



66 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



began to gather around us ; and when we arrived at 
the " Alto " it was in the midst of a pouring rain, 
while everything below was smiling in sunshine. 
And now came the " winter of our discontent," for 
again there was no connection of trains ; and in default 
of it there were no pretty Scotch girls, as at Mugi, to 
dispel the dreariness of the day before us. So we 
crept into a miserable venda; and there, in a miscel- 
laneous company, listening to all sorts of oaths and 
jargon, breathing the aroma of caxache rum, garlic, 
unwashed Portuguese, undressed negroes, and the 
general stench of humidity, we waited till evening, 
when the train arrived. 

As the afternoon advanced, the mist cleared away ; 
and when we were at length upon our road to San 
Paulo, it w T as that beautiful hour when daylight dies, 
and when the shadows of night are seen creeping 
along to its funeral. The change was scarcely 
perceptible, so nearly alike were the half-clear day- 
light and the night illumined by stars. Our eyes 
revelled in perfection when the moon rose, far away 
beyond the vast plains, over which we were so rapidly 
whirled. Thanks to those powerful engines, we had 
been elevated into another atmosphere — a different 
world ! Below, in Santos and on the plains we had 
left, the " pale moon, with sickly ray," was scarcely 
penetrating the miasmatic fog, and the stars were 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 67 

glimmering like lights from the attic windows of some 
pest-visited city. Here, all bright and clear, the night- 
lights of heaven danced through an air which was the 
breath of electric life. It was like the glowing Octo- 
ber of Vermont. What a month that is ! And how 
faint and feeble, in comparison, was this scene, that 
reminded us of it ! There is no such pure atmos- 
phere, no such variety of view, and, above all, no 
such fresh coloring, in the tropics as in our northern 
climes. Here we pass through immense tracts of 
wild woods, where the trees of perennial green are 
giant garden plants, blooming with flowers. We 
cannot but love and caress Nature, as, thus gaudily 
dressed, she is forever smiling upon us ; but she is 
like the women of this clime — lovely, languid, in- 
expressive, always the same. 

In these regions, Nature, animate or inanimate, is 
alike lazy, — almost too lazy to die as she dies with us, 
only to live again, — throwing around herself such a 
pall of beauty, that, when we look upon her autumn, 
the idea of our own death is robbed of its terrors. 

Yet this was a near approach to a temperate climate ; 
and the contrast with the deadly, sickening heat we 
had so long endured was so great, that the sensations 
caused by unaccustomed pulsation were for a time 
almost uncomfortable. 

The country through which we passed was generally 



68 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



level, and partially cleared, affording, one would think, 
excellent pasturage, and good land for growing wheat 
or corn. And yet no cattle are raised near the coast, 
no butter or cheese is made, no wheat is grown, 
and Indian corn is not produced in sufficient quantity 
for home consumption. The reasons assigned are, 
that cattle can be had for almost nothing far in the 
interior. So they are driven down to the sea, and 
what the flies and the " bichos " leave is consumed 
by the people. They are grateful that these destroy- 
ers cannot eat the hide and the bones, which are 
nearly all that is left. As for w^heat and Indian 
corn, they say there is more profit in raising coffee 
and cotton, and they can better import these grains 
than raise them. They obtain very good fresh cheese 
from the province of Minas ; and they rather prefer 
the butter which has become rancid, when imported 
from Europe or the United States, high as the price is 
compared with what they could afford it for themselves, 
— for a Brazilian is as fond of grease as a Russian. 

The people here all believe that milk is an unwhole- 
some article of food. It is a fact that two cows supply 
the whole city of Santos. Every morning these, and 
these only, may be seen driven about the town, each 
with her muzzled calf tied to the end of her tail. 
The milk is drawn off at the doors of those who 
require it, the procession of cow s calf, and milkman 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



69 



passing through whole streets without a call. When 
a customer is found, he is fully supplied from a small 
measure containing less than half a pint. 

At a late hour of the evening we were landed at the 
station, which is in the outskirts of the city of San 
Paulo. Thence we walked to the Hotel d'Europe, 
through clean, well-paved streets, bordered with low 
houses, neat, at least outwardly. 

In almost every foreign place we have found a 
" Hotel d'Europe ; " and as it has so often happened 
to be the best in the town, we decided to trust our- 
selves to it here. Nor were we mistaken or disap- 
pointed. The hotel compared favorably with any 
yet seen in Brazil, and was superior to those of 
the capital. The table was good and abundant, 
and the price for transient guests was only three 
milreas (one dollar and fifty cents) per day, including 
vin ordinaire. In a French hotel, by the by, this 
is indispensable. Were Frenchmen on a wreck with 
an allowance of a crumb of bread and a drop of 
water, they would expect the vin ordinaire to be 
included. Fruit was abundant here, the strawberries 
and grapes being particularly fine. I believe that 
cherries are unknown in Brazil. We were told, by 
an English resident, that the peaches, in their season, 
are equal to those of New Jersey ; but when he 
added, " They are not hup to those we have in Hing- 



7° 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



land," we knew that he was not qualified to make 
the comparison. 

The city of San Paulo contains twenty thousand 
inhabitants, and has a great deal of trade with the 
interior. For the present the terminus of the railroad 
is here, and thus for some time San Paulo will be 
the depot of all the merchandise going to and from 
the seaboard. But when the road is opened, as it 
soon will be, into the rich district of Campinas, this 
place will lose its commercial importance. Railroads 
terminating in small villages sometimes convert them 
into great cities ; by passing through large towns they 
often cause them to dwindle down to small villages. 

The people of this province are called Paulistas. 
They are generally of a purer race than their more 
northern countrymen, having less negro blood in their 
veins ; nor are they so much mixed with the Indians 
as the inhabitants south, in Paranagua. The women 
are often pretty, and not unfrequently of fair, clear 
complexion, through which blushes, unknown else- 
where, may occasionally be seen. Well located in San 
Paulo are the chief literary institutions of the empire. 
It enjoys the finest climate in Brazil, and suiely pure 
air enters into the production of clear brains. The 
course of education in law, physic, and divinity is 
very complete, occupying terms of seven years. It 
was vacation time, and the three classes of students, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 7 1 

who form a lively and important part of the popula- 
tion, being away at their homes, the town was con- 
sidered dull. These young men, belonging almost 
always to the richest families of the empire, disburse 
a great deal of money among the Paulistas, who are 
consoled in their absence by the reflection that when 
they return they will bring with them all the money 
that can be wrung out of their " governors." It being 
therefore " the dull season," we could please our- 
selves only with viewing the outside of the college 
buildings. 

We had no letters of introduction, and so we made 
no acquaintances, excepting those of our very civil 
landlord and of an American dentist — for American 
dentists find employment in all Brazilian towns, and 
in the mouths of almost all Brazilian women who 
can afford to avail themselves of their services. 
Pleased with what we had seen, and invigorated 
by our short sojourn in these upper regions, we 
trusted ourselves again to the wire rope, and were 
lowered down to the hot plains below. Soon again 
we found ourselves on the deck of the steamer, and 
on the next day sailed for Rio de Janeiro. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Trip 071 the Dom Pedro Segundo Railroad. — American and 
English Engineering Compared. — Dismal Swamp. — 
Terminus of tJie Road. — Future Extension. — A Negro- 
loving Philanthropist. — Lazi?iess and Cunning of the 
Negroes. — Unprofitable Servants. — The Plan a Failure. 

BY invitation of Mr. Ellison, engineer-in-chief 
of the Dom Pedro II. Railroad, we had a favor- 
able opportunity of travelling over this magnificent 
work to its present terminus, one hundred and twenty 
miles from Rio de Janeiro. We could not avoid 
comparing it very favorably with the San Paulo 
road, and feeling pride that the American style of 
construction was, at least in this one instance, so 
immeasurably superior to the English. 

This road follows for a greater distance the low 
level, which on this part of the coast extends about 
forty miles before the inevitable Serra is reached. 
The Serra, or upper platform of land, may average 
three thousand feet high for its whole extent. For the 
first ten miles the road passes through the beautiful 
and highly cultivated suburbs of the city, leaving on 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



73 



the right, the palace and grounds of San Christovao, 
and cutting through the gardens of the numerous 
chacaras inhabited by the wealthy citizens. For the 
rest of the level, as far as Belem, at the foot of the 
Serra, the land is divided about equally between 
plantation, pasturage, and morass, with here and 
there a village at the railway stations. The cars 
are mostly of the American pattern, which is gen- 
erally preferred in this warm climate. 

For ten miles before arriving at Belem (or Beth- 
lehem), we passed through a most dismal swamp, 
indeed. The waste of human life in the construction 
of this short section was horrible, and the few 
laborers and overseers who survived the inevitable 
fever of this pool of abominations, are now tottering 
to the grave with ruined constitutions. 

We had no such discomforts here as on the San 
Paulo road. Although the rise from the coast to 
the Serra is the same in both places, we were not 
obliged to change seats or to feel that our lives 
hung by a thread, or even by a wire rope. Not- 
withstanding that in some places the grade could not 
be reduced to less than one foot in fifteen, the stal- 
wart American iron horse jogged along, slowly, it 
is true, and straining his muscles to the utmost, but 
carrying us bravely through the notches and along 
the sides of the hills. There was a feeling of perfect 



74 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



security as we surveyed the solid masonry and stone 
walls — seemingly as durable as those of the Simplon, 
or of the road over Mount Cenis. We could not but 
marvel that Americans should have so far surpassed 
in a foreign land anything that has been done at home. 

The scenery is of the same character as that of 
the Serra farther south, but more beautiful in variety. 
Lost for a moment in wonder at the giant forest 
w r hich surrounded us, the next instant opened a vista 
through which we looked far down on the valley of 
Macacos, extending for miles between two spurs of 
the Serra — every foot of it a fruitful garden. 

Rhodeo is the first station, about sixty miles 
from Rio de Janeiro, and nearly at the "Alto" of 
the Serra. From thence, after rising three hundred 
feet more, until a height of three thousand feet is 
attained, there is a more gradual descent to the 
valley and river of Parahiba, where is the present 
terminus of the road for traffic. It is partially 
completed, and will soon be opened as far as Entre 
Rios, where it crosses the celebrated " Uniao e 
Industria " carriage road. For some forty miles 
across the valley the grade is comparatively level, 
and there are few natural obstacles to be overcome 

But the march of the Dom Pedro II. Railroad is 
onward. Its future progress is over and through 
mountains and rocks, till the great mining district of 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



75 



Minas, now the journey of weeks, is brought within 
two days' communication with the capital. Govern- 
ment cannot well spare the money, depleted as the 
treasury now is by an unprofitable war ; but as it has 
assumed the responsibility of finishing the road, it 
will be done. The investment will, at all events, 
prove a better one than that in Paraguay, where life, 
as well as treasure, has been so uselessly sacrificed. 

Returning towards the city, and passing Rhodeo, we 
were landed, by the kind invitation of Dr. Gunning, 
at the platform a few steps from his chacara. Charm- 
ing as is this beautiful retreat, perched in the moun- 
tain wilderness, looking through its clearings down 
on the lovely valley of Macacos, there is something 
more charming in the character of our amiable hosts. 

Dr. Gunning is a practical negro-loving philanthro- 
pist. Although his schemes have been failures, and 
his efforts for the improvement of the black race have 
been entirely without success, he is yet as sanguine 
as ever, still persevering, in spite of misfortune, and 
even of ridicule, so much harder to bear. 

Coming as we did from a country where we knew 
too well how much of the pretended love for the 
negro has emanated from that political ambition 
which has made him the mere tool for the purposes 
of party and of power, we could not but admire and 
love this disinterested enthusiast. 



7 6 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



Dr. Gunning left a high position in the Medical 
College of Edinburgh, sixteen years ago, and came to 
Brazil for the improvement of his health. Here, in a 
short time, his skill as a physician, and some profitable 
investments in the mines, secured him an ample for- 
tune. Had his constitution permitted him to return 
to England, he would, doubtless, have found full scope 
for his benevolence among the poor whites there ; but 
as he was obliged to remain in Brazil, he naturally 
turned his attention to the prevailing color. In short, 
as an individual, he resolved to devote his time, 
talents, and property to the experiment which nations 
have tried in vain. He would raise the black to the 
level of the white race, by a practical trial of a theory 
not new, but variously attempted — that of u giving 
the black man a fair chance." 

With this object steadily in view, he purchased 
some thirty-five or forty negroes. He bought a tract 
of land nearly two miles square on the railroad which 
was then building, about six years ago, and on it the 
pretty cottage at which we were so hospitably enter- 
tained now stands. 

In its neighborhood he built comfortable huts for his 
negroes, and gave to each as large a garden spot as he 
required. At that time the planters and other slave- 
owners were gaining enormously by the labor of their 
negroes upon the railroad, so that the value of a slave 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



77 



was soon cleared. The good doctor asked himself the 
question, " If a planter can clear a negro, why cannot 
a negro clear himself?" A woman's answer, "Be- 
cause — " would have been more to the purpose than 
his own. At any rate, the negroes did not clear 
themselves, and they remain on hand to this day. 

The doctor commenced a perfect system of book- 
keeping. Each colored gentleman had his name at 
the head of a page, with Dr. on the left and Cr. on 
the right : Dr. to his first cost, interest on the same, 
and subsequent expenses for food, clothing, &c. ; Cr. 
by cash received for his individual labor. When the 
accounts balanced he was to be free. But none of 
the accounts ever came to be balanced. 

The negro is often not so much of a fool as his 
white apologist. He would have no objection to free- 
dom if it could be had for nothing, for the days of 
idleness before him are a tempting luxury. But these 
fellows had the sense to see that with such a master 
as Dr. Gunning, freedom would not be worth working 
for. The result was, that they were nearly half the 
time drunk, or sick in the hospital, and when they 
did work, they worked so unprofitably that the rail- 
road company dispensed with their services. 

The doctor is now using them in clearing and plant- 
ing his own grounds, and crediting them with their 
daily labor. In this way he promises himself that 



7 S 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



they will eventually earn their freedom. His neigh- 
bors say that the work would be done in a cheaper 
and better manner if he gave them their freedom at 
once, and then hired the slaves of others. 

In the mean time the doctor submits quietly to the 
robbery of his hen-roosts, the stealing of his fruit and 
vegetables, the surreptitious milking of his cows, and 
the other annoyances, great and small, which the 
presence of these vagabonds entails upon him. His 
corn is gathered early, but it is not gathered for him ; 
and his crop of green coffee is large for others, while 
that of ripe coffee is small for himself. The black 
lilies " toil not, neither do they spin," and the slaves 
are hard masters, " reaping where they have not 
sown." 

When our excellent friend first made his investment, 
he was very inconsiderate in the explanation of his 
plans to the negroes. One morning after instructing 
them in the mysteries of book-keeping, he added that, 
in case of his death at any time, they would be free at 
once. On the same night he was attacked in his bed 
by a negro with an iron bar, and seriously beaten over 
the head. Fortunately the generous Scotchman's head 
was harder than his heart, and the only result of the 
blow was an enlargement of the organ of caution. 



79 



CHAPTER X. 

A Brazilian Plantation under Yankee Management. — De- 
scription of the Fazenda. — Sunshine and Shade. — Brazil- 
ian Cookery. — Ride over the Estate. — Working of the 
Negroes. — Freedom and Slavery. — Comparative Advan- 
tages and Disadvantages. — Moral Refections, &c. 

THERE is a fazenda on the line of the railroad, 
about twenty miles from Rio de Janeiro, which 
belonged to a Portuguese family for many generations. 
At last the family decayed, and the plantation like- 
wise went to ruin. The old stone buildings began to 
crumble, and the brush-wood, starting up in the place 
of neglected sugar-cane, soon became a young forest, 
where the cattle ran wild, and the negroes became 
very much like them. At length, by mortgage, this 
property fell into the hands of Baron Maua, the great- 
est capitalist and banker in Brazil. The baron had 
an adopted daughter, and she had a lover from the 
land of the Yankees ; and the baron, like the sensible 
man he is, favored the love of the young people, had 
them married, and then turned over this plantation of 
four thousand acres to Mr. Hayes, for him to " im- 
prove." 



So 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



It looked " seedy" enough, although that wculcl 
seem an improper term for unplanted land — five years 
ago. But now the desert is beginning to blossom, and 
in five years more the empire will not contain a more 
flourishing or better conducted estate. 

We were cordially welcomed at the station by our 
countryman, and, mounting a chariot which he had 
exhumed and renovated, — a curiosity, indeed, of 
Portuguese antiquity, — we were driven off to the 
fazenda. 

A "fazenda" is, properly, a plantation; but the 
name is applied also to the house upon it. These 
houses are all in very much the same style. From 
a distance a fazenda, with its outbuildings, has the 
air of a fortress, being arranged quadrilaterally, with 
a large area within. This area serves as a play- 
ground for young darkies, a promenade for sheep, 
goats, calves, and pigs, a drying-ground for clothes, 
a receptacle for firewood, charcoal, vegetables, old 
tools, bottles, broken wagons, empty barrels, wash- 
tubs, and a vast quantity of filth, which might be of 
considerable service if incorporated into the land out- 
side. In this instance foreign habits had very much 
improved upon native untidiness. 

The front face of this fazenda was at least one 
hundred and fifty feet in length, being mostly of one 
story, with another added, sufficient for a few sleeping- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



81 



rooms, over the middle of the long range. At one end 
was the kitchen, at the other the chapel. Between 
them ran a long, wide gallery, hung with family por- 
traits. This served for hall, salon, and general purposes 
of family gathering, the dining-room and sleeping- 
rooms opening from it, and looking out upon the area. 

There could not be contrived a more comfortable 
house for a hot climate. But there was an absence of 
piazzas and shade trees. Strangely, these are always 
wanting to Brazilian houses. There is no way of 
accounting for this singular omission other than by 
attributing it to the influence of negro blood, more or 
less of which runs in the veins of so many of the people. 
A negro, and only a negro, luxuriates in the sunshine 
of the tropics. All other natives of hot regions — the 
Bengalese and Malays, for examples — take every pre- 
caution against the sun's rays. When a white fireman 
on board of a steamer comes up from his watch, he 
always leans over the rail in the shade, where he can 
get the air. But the negro fireman comes up at noon- 
day, under a vertical sun, and throws himself down to 
sleep upon a deck which would blister the skin of a 
rhinoceros. 

This want of shade gives all Brazilian houses a 
forlorn and forbidding exterior. It must be oc- 
casioned by an Ethiopian love of sunshine. 

A different taste is very noticeable among the r eople 
6 



S?3 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



of Montevideo and Buenos Ayres. In a climate of 
so much higher latitude, the luxury of shade does 
not seem so indispensable as it should be in Brazil. 
Nevertheless, their "quintas" are as tasteful as these 
fazendas are repulsive. There we find the most re- 
freshing coolness in the very sight of the verandas, 
awnings, and shade trees, which are the invariable 
protectors against summer heat. Among those de- 
scendants of the old Spaniards there is no negro 
blood. 

Arriving at the fazenda, we were kindly received by 
the charming hostess, whose agreeable manners made 
us immediately at home. Hospitality is a Brazilian 
virtue, and we were not surprised at meeting a numer- 
ous though accidental company around the table. It 
was not unpleasant to find that while the taste of her 
Brazilian guests had been duly consulted, the English 
education of our young hostess had qualified her like- 
wise to please the palates of her husband and his friends. 
So we had a nicely prepared English dinner, while 
the Brazilians, neglecting our dishes, held to their 
carne seca, torcinho, feijaos, and bacalhao. 

The first three of these articles are served together, 
carne seca being, what its name implies, dried meat, or, 
as we term it, "jerked beef," immense quantities of 
which are cured in Buenos Ayres, chiefly for the con- 
sumption of West India negroes and Brazilians. It 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



S3 



has long been an article of commerce, giving employ- 
ment to a large fleet of vessels. Torcinho is clear pork, 
or the fat of hogs, from which lard is made. Feijaos 
are black beans. These three articles, with various 
concomitants, in which garlic is never wanting, are 
stirred together and stewed, and thus form the omni- 
present national dish. Bacalhao, or salt codfish, 
ranks next. Professor Agassiz told us that the people 
about the Amazon are so fond of it, that they will not 
use the delicate fish of their own waters, if they can 
get this greater delicacy from Newfoundland. Beef 
and mutton are generally tough and lean. When 
these meats are seen upon the table, they are so much 
cooked that the little juice they contained is dried up, 
and the meat is blackened like charcoal. In this state 
it is served as part of an olla podrida, with yams, cab- 
bage, and garlic. The Brazilian cuisine by itself is an 
unmitigated abomination ! 

Early on the next morning w r e were all on horse- 
back, prepared to take a survey of the plantation. 
We trotted leisurely through the cotton, cane, and 
mandioca fields, and then galloped over the pastures, 
and through the shady, lanes, which intersect the forest 
not yet brought under cultivation, passing on our way 
the gangs of negroes going to their work. 

No one will suppose that they were hurrying with 
any great alacrity to their forced labor ; but there was 



84 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



no appearance of suffering among them, nor were the 
overseers cracking whips over their backs. They 
were generally singing cheerfully, and they invariably 
saluted Mr. Hayes, pleasantly as well as respectfully. 
" God be with you ! " they said to us, and " God be 
with you ! " we replied to them ; neither black nor 
white man thinking of the full meaning of this fre- 
quent benediction, or how much the divine presence is 
needed by both alike ! 

When each reflects upon the condition of the other, 
we think that we can appreciate the sorrows of the 
slave ; but we cannot counterbalance these with the 
bliss which springs from ignorance and from the ex- 
uberance of mere animal life. 

On the other hand, while the slave must often look 
upon the white man with envy, — chiefly because he is 
better fed and clothed, and has less labor to perform 
than himself, — how very far he is from any possible 
sympathy with the woes which civilization entails ! 
— disappointed ambition, unrequited affection, society's 
poisonous breath of slander, loss of property, the fruit 
of that very tree of knowledge which we are all so 
anxious to reach, and which, when attained, so often 
disagrees with our mental digestion, sometimes chan- 
ging the faith of childhood to scepticism in maturer 
years ; even the wisdom which grasps " star-eyed 
Science," receiving in return her " message of de- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



85 



spair ! " Is freedom from all this misery nothing to 
setoff against the white man's superiority? And of 
these evils how little does the slave know in his own 
person ! Therefore it is that he pities us as little as 
we envy him. 

God be with us all, and give us all His greatest 
blessing — contentment ! for most assuredly it cannot 
be otherwise than that happiness and misery are equi- 
tably distributed, according to our capacity for enjoy- 
ment or suffering. 

It was a delightful morning, but the sun was already 
blazing far up in the eastern sky, so that we could not 
see all that we wished with comfort. But we were 
satisfied that our enterprising friend deserves and will 
attain success. 

His system of labor is different from that of the 
good philanthropist of Rhodeo. His negroes are 
literally " worked/' his theory being that, as labor 
is their condition, the greatest amount of work com- 
patible with their health and fair endurance, is to be 
got from them. With this end in view, there is a 
judicious distribution of rewards and punishments. 
A sufficiency of rest and of time for meals is allowed, 
and Sundays and certain holidays are their own, but 
laziness is not encouraged in any shape. The result 
of this treatment, combined with an active super- 
intendence, is, that this plantation " pays," while that 



86 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



of Dr. Gunning and that of Santa Cruz, which we 
afterwards visited, do not ; and there is unmistakably 
a better and a happier look among the negroes of Mr. 
Hayes than among the others. 

As we rode homeward, towards noon, we were sin- 
cerely glad that there had not yet been found time to 
cut down the forest trees ; and it must be confessed that 
the breakfast-table was one of the very pleasantest of 
our morning views. 

In the evening we were called out to see the negroes, 
of whom there were one hundred and thirty, of both 
sexes and all ages, at supper. We had dined sump- 
tuously, and our dinner had been moistened by the 
flow of pleasant conversation, as w T ell as by that of 
champagne. These negroes were feeding on carne 
seca and farinha, enormous quantities of which they 
washed down with cold water. As they sat upon 
their haunches on the bare ground, their huge mouth- 
fuls were constantly interrupted by guffaws of laughter, 
the tops of their cocoa-nuts falling backwards, and 
their unswallowed food seeming to lie in a deep ebony 
dish with ivory borders. 

And yet, poor devils, you are but little more than 
brutes, as you seem to us ! But to-morrow is Sunday. 
You will put on a few clean white rags, and you will 
wear gay red and yellow turbans, and ribbons of all 
colors. You will drink caxache, if you can get it ; 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 87 

at any rate, you will dance and be jolly. We shall 
talk, read, and swing in our hammocks. We will all 
be happy — will we not? — in our way. On Monday 
you shall take up the shovel and the hoe, and trudge to 
the cane-fields. We shall go to town and be plagued 
by our business. We shall all go to our work, and 
have a hard time — shall we not ? — in our way* 



ss 



CHAPTER XI. 



Cultivation of Mandioca. — Its Imj)orta?ice to Brazil. — Pro* 
cess of Manufacturing it. — An old Roman Catholic 
Chapel. — Negro Worship therein. — Muscular Piety. — 
Barbarous versus Fashionable Devotions. — Return to the 
City. 



FTER all that may be said of coffee, sugar, and 



ii cotton, mandioca is the most important pro- 
duction of Brazil, for by it the whole people live. In 
some of its various shapes it is always on the table of 
the rich and the poor. The root of this exceedingly 
prolific plant externally resembles the sweet potato, or 
the yam. Its vine is like a bush, and grows to the 
height of several feet. 

When eaten raw, the mandioca root is poisonous ; 
but when boiled, it is wholesome and palatable. Thus 
it is used in the everlasting olla podrida of carne 
seca, lard, and black beans. But its general use is in 
the shape of farinha, which is made after the juice is 
expressed. 

On entering the shed where the negroes were at 
work, we saw the first process of grinding the root in 




TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



s 9 



an ordinary mill. -All the juice obtained by this 
means was conducted into a vat. A great deal more 
was afterwards extracted by squeezing the pulp in a 
machine precisely like a cider-press. The remainder 
was then dried in an oven, and afterwards broken and 
sifted. The coarse flour thus obtained is called 
farinha. It is used without further cooking, serving 
the place of bread upon the table ; and it is moreover 
made into a thick porridge, and thus eaten at all times. 
The juice is first converted into starch, and then, by a 
heating process, is hardened and granulated, and so 
becomes tapioca. 

On Sunday morning the chapel bell called the ne- 
groes to worship. Certainly the church of Sapo- 
pemba was of the independent order. In old Portu- 
guese times, the baronial lords of these domains were 
aristocrats in religion as well as in all else. Then the 
chapel had the usual fittings of images, pictures, 
and silver candlesticks, and a chaplain conducted 
services according to the ritual of the Roman Catho- 
lic church. But the riches of the proprietors took to 
themselves wings and flew away, and they themselves 
are mouldering under the slabs of the chapel floor, 
where they cannot see the desecration over their 
heads. 

The pictures and ornaments are gone, but the saints 
in the niches still hold on, without arms and without 



90 TEN MONTHS IN BRA2IL. 

legs ; and a faded figure of the Virgin, now dressed in 
gay Ethiopian mode, still presides at the altar. For 
years there had been no religious services. 

The present occupant of the fazenda, a descendant 
of those whose boast it was that they came to New 
England for the sake of religious freedom, cannot 
conscientiously do otherwise than allow this same 
inestimable privilege to his negroes. So they have 
organized a church of their own, and have chosen a 
priest from their own number. No bishop ever laid 
his hands on the pate of this venerable Uncle Ned ; 
nor are his vestments of the approved priestly pat- 
tern. His change from a secular to a clerical cos- 
tume was made by simply wearing his shirt outside of 
his trousers. This style, with the addition of a large 
black handkerchief around his neck, sufficiently dis- 
tinguished him from the congregation. 

The services were opened by a general shout, and 
then a long, silent prostration of all hands upon the 
floor. Then, at a signal from Uncle Ned, about a hun- 
dred blackbirds arose at once, as if from a cover, and 
commenced a chattering song, which must have been 
first sung in their native wilds. Sitting upon their 
haunches, which favorite position they have assumed 
as an innovation upon kneeling, they clapped their 
hands, wagged their heads, and rolled their eyeballs 
to this savage melody. The words were African, with 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



91 



the exception of the chorus of " Sancta Maria, ora pro 
nobis." 

The clergyman managed his part easily, without 
the aid of books. After the conclusion of this act, he 
crossed himself in every direction, whirling about like 
a dervish, then threw himself down, and rose again 
with an elasticity evincing an acquaintance with " leap- 
frog " in his younger days. 

Music again, and that always vocal, while the 
congregation, standing, beat time both with hands and 
feet, like David " praising God in the dance." Why 
not? It is His appointed way to receive homage from 
these poor ignorant creatures. When their uncouth 
ceremonies were ended, they rushed out upon the 
green, yelling and tumbling over one another, in a 
very indiscriminate way. But the turbaned wenches, 
who displayed extra finery, were " upon dignity," 
or they feared to injure their toilets. In some in- 
stances these were quite elaborate, and their wool 
was braided and kinked d la Mozambique. Some of 
the mulatto girls were still more barbarous, for they 
carried behind their heads those unnatural excres- 
cences termed " waterfalls." 

We thought of the liveried coachmen and footmen, 
and the splendid equipages, waiting at the door of 
an " upper-tendom " Church, — of the fashionable 
ladies sailing out with gilt prayer-books in hand, as 



9 2 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



they enter the carriages to go home, with such " sim- 
plicity and godly sincerity," talking of what they had 
seen, instead of what they had heard. Why not? It 
may be His appointed way, likewise, for them to wor- 
ship, for they seem to know no better. 

Dispersing on the green, the negroes went their 
way, some to their quarters, while others strolled into 
the road and went to visit their acquaintances on other 
plantations. They are accustomed to walk many 
miles to pay their visits on Sundays, notwithstanding 
their hard labor during the week. On the following 
day w r e returned to the city, delighted with our ex- 
cursion, and grateful for the kindness and hospitality 
with which we had been entertained. 



93 



CHAPTER XII. 



Wearisome Monotony. — Visit to an Imperial Domain.— 
History of the Estate. — Incidents of tJie Journey. — Hard 
Suffer and harder Beds. — A Morning Ride. — Golden 
Fruit. — The Estate of Santa Cruz. — The Emperor's 
Wines. — Bad Economy. — Splendid View from the Dome. 
— Inspection of the Palace. 

r | ^IIE variety afforded by occasional visits to the 



X country was a relief to the tediousness of a 
life which was becoming very monotonous. 

The novelty of coast scenery had worn off, and 
the mountain landmarks, losing much of their sub- 
limity, were regarded as little more than aids to navi- 
gation. The same classes of passengers were going 
and coming, a further acquaintance with their lan- 
guage not improving our estimate of their character ; 
and, worse than all, the freighting business became so 
dull that it was often less unprofitable for the steamer 
to lie still than to be employed. 

So it happened that I was quite ready to join two 
captains of the American squadron, with some other 




94 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



gentlemen, who had planned an excursion to the 
imperial fazenda of Santa Cruz. 

Santa Cruz is now the private property of the 
emperor. It originally belonged to the Jesuits, who, 
at an early period in the history of the country, ob- 
tained a grant of this immense domain from the 
Portuguese government. On a rising ground in 
its centre they built the present edifice, which, w T ith 
its various extensive apartments, served them for all 
their religious, educational, and secular purposes, of 
which last they made no little account. 

When the grandfather of the present emperor es- 
tablished his court in Brazil, he found the Jesuits a 
strong antagonistic power, and accordingly he drove 
them out of the country, and confiscated their property. 

Among other large possessions, this fazenda of 
Santa Cruz, with all its improvements, slaves, and 
cattle, fell into his hands. It was then, and for a long 
time afterwards, an immensely productive estate, the 
land being rich, adapted to pasturage and the raising 
of every variety of produce. It is agreeably diversi- 
fied by rolling country, meadows, hills, and woodland, 
and nothing can be imagined as offering better in- 
ducements for profitable cultivation. The Jesuits had 
also a due regard to health, and must have taken 
this important consideration into account in selecting 
Santa Cruz as their place of residence. 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



95 



Old King Joao availed himself of all these advan- 
tages, and not only enjoyed an enormous revenue 
from the confiscated lands, but so improved the inter- 
nal arrangements of the building, that he made for 
himself a spacious and comfortable palace. Here, 
sensible old king that he was, he passed most of 
his time, until he went home again to Portugal. 

His son, Pedro I., the first emperor of Brazil, like- 
wise lived here very comfortably, and derived many 
milreas from the sweat of the negroes and the hides 
and tallow of the cattle. 

When the present emperor ascended the throne, he, 
too, delighted in Santa Cruz. Here his first children 
were born ; but here, also, his first-born little prince 
died ; and from that day, very many years ago, neither 
the emperor nor the empress has entered the doors 
of the palace. 

This, in a few words, is the history, as it was told 
us, of Santa Cruz. 

The distance of the fazenda from Rio de Janeiro is 
about fifty miles. In former times, when it was a 
royal residence, it was connected with the city by a 
good carriage road, which at present is sadly out 
of repair, and for the last few miles has dwindled 
clown to little better than a bridle path. 

The first part of the journey is made by railroad. 
We left the cars at Sapopemba, whence the diligence 



9 6 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



conveyed us six miles to Campo Grande, a small vil- 
lage with a large name. According to the literal 
meaning of the words, it is in a " large field." The 
public buildings consist of one church, and the private 
property of one venda. The inhabitants are many 
— the landlord, his wife, two or three sons and daugh- 
ters, and millions of fleas. 

We ordered a supper of boiled eggs, for these are 
the only articles of food that a Brazilian cook cannot 
spoil. Grease and garlic cannot penetrate the shells. 
But even eggs are unreliable. These people have no 
idea of a difference in them, but they use them in all 
conditions of age, and sometimes in the transition 
stage of being. Coffee is always good, and generally 
at the vendas hard biscuit is to be had. Rice is 
abundant, but no persuasion will prevent the cooks 
from flavoring it with lard and garlic : unfortunately, 
it cannot be boiled in a shell. 

We managed the supper pretty well ; and though it 
was inclined to " lie hard upon our stomachs," it did 
not lie so hard as our backs lay upon the beds, which 
were surely spread with boiler iron sheets. We would 
not have cared so much if they had been level. It was 
of the ridges, which lay across them like crow-bars, 
that we complained. 

At night the population came out en masse, de- 
lighted to welcome us with the gayest hop-skip-and- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



97 



jump imaginable. It will be remembered that sailors 
seldom swear ; but on this memorable night there 
were certainly some expressions of impatience. 

Morning dawned upon us not a whit too soon. 
After the refreshment of a bath at the fountain, that 
partly compensated for the want of sleep, we were on 
horseback at daylight, prepared for a ride of twenty- 
eight miles. It is thought that sailors do not appear 
to advantage on horseback ; but we suffered less than 
in those detestable beds, and, being more accustomed 
to deprivation of sleep than our companions, we were 
fresher for the work, and "blew" them all in the 
course of the day. 

We galloped off the first twelve miles before break- 
fast, and arrived at another little village, called San 
Antonio. While our meal was preparing, we walked 
out into the orchard belonging to the venda. It was a 
perfect little forest of orange trees in full bearing, for 
it was then the height of the season. A more beauti- 
ful intermingling of gold and green I never saw. The 
dew of the morning, yet upon the fruit, gave it a re- 
freshing coolness, such as no orange can have even a 
few hours after being gathered, much less after being 
carried across the sea. There are no better oranges 
in the world than those of Brazil ; and it seemed to 
us dusty and thirsty travellers, that none in Brazil 
could equal those of San Antonio. 
7 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



After breakfast we continued our route. Fortu- 
nately the road was well shaded, protecting us from 
the sun, even at noonday. The ground was gen- 
erally level, and easily got over. Much of it was 
pasturage, with here and there a small fazencla. Most 
of the land had been cultivated in former years, but 
was now run out, the planters caring very little about 
keeping it up. The soil, being generally thin, is soon 
exhausted ; and as there is plenty more to be had, 
they seldom take the trouble to restore it by manuring. 
Orange orchards abounded by the roadside. The 
fruit was to be had for the asking. Even that cere- 
mony was dispensed with, the trees themselves doubly 
inviting us as we availed ourselves of their shade, pay- 
ing us with their golden offerings to rest beneath them. 

Long before arriving at Santa Cruz we sighted the 
dome of the palace, and by and bye we came to the 
long avenue along which the chariot of old King Joao 
was wont to roll. Now, it is so badly washed by the 
rains, that majesty, or any kind of humanity, would 
be seriously inconvenienced to get over it on wheels. 
But our animals, smelling the stables afar off, cleared 
the big boulders at a rapid pace, and at four o'clock 
they brought us to the door of the hotel. It is really 
a hotel, and a very nice one, too, that is kept by the 
superintendent of the fazenda. 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 99 

Having first enjoyed the luxury of a bath, we were 
served with a capital dinner ; and, as I do not sup- 
pose the emperor will ever read this, it can harm no 
one to say that the wine was excellent, for the palace 
cellars are well stocked, though his Majesty never 
comes hither, and would never drink wine if he did. 

Pedro II. is a poor economist. He receives four 
hundred thousand dollars per annum from the state, 
beskles his own private income, and yet he is always 
as poor as he is generous. A great deal too much does 
his " charity begin at home." With his revenue he 
keeps up several establishments — his chief residences 
are at San Christovao, the city palace, and at Petrop- 
olis. Each of them, as well as this fazenda of 
Santa Cruz, has its attaches in greater or less num- 
ber, for whom he must provide. But it is certainly 
requiring too much to ask him to furnish such choice 
wines, especially if they are to be sold as well as 
used. 

The fazenda is the nucleus of a small town. One 
of the chief buildings is that of our landlord. Others 
are occupied by his deputies, the superintendents of 
different departments. The smaller houses, in long 
adobe blocks, are inhabited by negroes, bond and free. 
The scene was quite lively in the evening. Music and 
dancing were going on in various quarters, the bright 



IOO 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



moonlight giving a very picturesque appearance to 
the groups of negroes. 

Early on the next morning the palace was thrown 
open for inspection. Our first thought was to ascend 
the long ranges of staircases leading to the dome or 
belfry, whence we were sure to obtain a comprehen- 
sive view of the country. Every other consideration 
of it was surpassed by its beauty. 

As we looked eastward, the sun was just rising, 
throwing his rays across the plains over which we 
had travelled yesterday. We were embayed in the 
mountains. The Serra, generally running north and 
south, about thirty miles from the coast, here bends, 
like an ox-bow, to the westward, and then returning to 
its line, continues its course. In the south-east was the 
ocean, glistening like a mirror in the morning light. 
The lands of the fazenda were embraced in the bight 
formed by the bend of the Serra. Far away in the 
distance, from west to north, and thence to north-east, 
extend the plains and meadows, until they come to the 
base of the mountains, which look down upon them, 
and water them copiously with their streams. On 
these the sun now threw his light, bringing them 
seemingly nearer, so that we could trace them leap- 
ing over the cliffs before they attained their quiet level 
in the fields. There on their banks were feeding the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



IOI 



immense droves of cattle that run wild over most of 
the estate. Certain districts are allotted to planta- 
tions ; but by far the greater part is in undisturbed 
possession of the grass, and of the animals feeding 
upon it. 

The negroes were beginning to crawl out from their 
quarters, and were travelling off at a slow pace to 
their labor on various parts of the farm. 

Descending from the dome, we wandered through 
the apartments of the palace. These were large and 
airy, without any pretensions to splendor, or even to 
what we call comfort in our colder climate. Some 
of the floors were covered with carpets, which, so little 
used as they are, will long defy the ravages of time, 
as they have done thus far. The furniture was all 
of foreign manufacture. Part of it doubtless belonged 
to the original proprietors of the fazenda, and all of 
it must have been brought from Europe many years 
ago. High-backed chairs with faded gilding, toilet 
and card tables with spindle shanks, long-posted 
bedsteads, great oval mirrors with tawdry decorations, 
and many more such evidences of antiquity, occupied 
the rooms. The banqueting hall was the unaltered 
refectory of the Jesuits, and their immense kitchen 
required no change. 

One room is sacredly guarded from the intrusion of 



102 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



strangers ; only the door was opened, that we might 
see the bed whereon died the little prince. Perhaps 
his parents believe the story that he w r as poisoned, 
and this may account for their aversion to the place. 
Not an article of the furniture of the room has been 
disturbed since the sad event ; not even has broom or 
dusting brush been there. 



io3 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Imperial Philanthropist. — Giving the Black Man a fair 
Cha?ice. — School of Negro Children. — Music by a Juve- 
nile Band. — Compensatio7is in Life. — Failure of the Santa 
Cruz Experiment. — A Sanitary Scheme. — The Emperor's 
Obstinacy. — Cicltivation of Tea i?i Brazil. — Fruit Gar- 
dens. 



l HE emperor is trying a grand philanthropic ex- 



i periment at Santa Cruz, on a system somewhat 
different from that of Rhodeo, vastly more extensive, 
but unsuccessful in about the same proportion. At 
Rhodeo there are thirty-five negroes — here there are 
two thousand four hundred. In his way the emperor 
proposes to " give the black man a fair chance." The 
slaves are allowed Saturdays, Sundays, and all the 
principal holidays for their own time. According to 
a calculation of the superintendent, they thus have 
rather more than half the year to themselves. Instead 
of being fed by their owner, they have a daily allow- 
ance in money, according to age, sufficient for their 
support. Particular attention is given to the educa- 
tion of the children. 




TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



Passing down the grand staircase, we entered the 
basement, which is used as a school-room. At that 
early hour it was not occupied by the pupils for study, 
but a band of thirty or forty of them, of ages varying 
from six to sixteen, saluted us with music which 
would have been creditable to many an orchestra. 
They played the national airs of Brazil, the United 
States, England, and France, and several pieces of 
their own composition. One little darkey, of eight 
years, made a very comical figure under the lee of 
an enormous bass drum, upon which he played with 
great dexterity, keeping time, as all did, with his 
eyeballs. Music is the negro's inherent gift. When 
we think of his sufferings and degradation, we may 
offset a little of our sympathy by remembering that he 
always has this divine emotion : — 

" Whose soft, celestial accents steal 

So soothing through the realms of woe, 
That suffering souls a respite feel 
From torture in the depths below." 

Be this true or not, music is no slight alleviation to 
the woes of the present life. Happy the man who 
can always call upon this constant friend ; happy the 
negro who can whistle and sing at his work, and 
dance to music when his work is done ! 

There are several teachers employed in the school, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



some of them priests. They seemed very intelligent, 
and devoted to the work in which they are engaged. 
Their observation corresponded with that of the teach- 
ers we met at Hilton Head during the war. They 
say that the young black children receive impressions 
more readily than the whites ; that they are better 
scholars, and develop more rapidly up to a' certain 
age, when they suddenly stop, and not unfrequently 
relapse into their former barbarism. 

The men and women are employed in various 
duties about the estate. Many of them have the care 
of the cattle, of which there are eight thousand head, 
besides horses, mules, and sheep. Others are em- 
ployed in agriculture and gardening, and many are 
hired by the neighboring planters. But there is a 
prejudice against Santa Cruz negroes, and they are 
employed only when other labor cannot be obtained. 
Mr. Hayes, at Sapopemba, says that they have been 
very unprofitable to him, as they teach laziness to his 
own people. 

Notwithstanding all their religious and educational 
privileges, they are a bad set. The plan of giving 
them an allowance for food does not seem to answer 
well. They keep the money, and then dig their 
mandioca and yams out of the emperor's land ; they 
kill his cattle, and occasionally, when they are inter- 
fered with in this mode of getting an honest living, 



106 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

they kill an overseer. Many of them have taken to a 
gipsey life, " squatting " about on different parts of the 
domain, and, if disturbed, hiding themselves in the 
mountains. 

The consequence is, that this exceedingly valuable 
property, instead of producing an immense income, is 
a burden and expense to its good-natured owner. 

The slaughter-houses of Rio de Janeiro are in the 
outskirts of the town, so that when the wind is from 
their direction a pestiferous air is breathed by the 
people. The beef that is daily killed, to supply the 
four hundred thousand inhabitants of that great city, 
is nearly ready to die before the slaughter is com- 
menced. The poor, tired animals, having arrived 
only the previous day from their journey of hundreds 
of miles, starvation and the flies have left but little 
life in them. The quality of the meat may be 
imagined. 

It is said that corporations have no souls ; but here 
is one that, with all its schemes of profit, which would 
doubtless be large, has more genuine philanthropy in 
its head than ever entered the kind heart of the em- 
peror. It proposes to hire the Santa Cruz estate, 
paying for it from one to two hundred thousand dol- 
lars yearly, w T ith the privilege of connecting it by a 
branch with the Dom Pedro II. Railroad. According 
to this plan, the slaughter-houses near the city would 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



IO7 



be discontinued ; all the cattle from the country would 
be first driven hither, and pastured till they are fat- 
tened ; then they would be slaughtered, and an ex- 
press train would take the meat to the city in an hour. 
But the emperor will not consent. So much the 
worse for everybody. Were this scheme carried out, 
much sickness would be avoided ; nearly half a mil- 
lion of people would get good meat daily, instead of 
skin and bones ; immense droves of cattle would 
have an elysium of green grass before their death ; 
capitalists would invest their money profitably for 
themselves and for the public ; and the benefits 
would be great and general. By the emperor's re- 
fusal, all these advantages and a princely income are 
thrown away, and twenty-four hundred negroes are 
kept in laziness, for the sake of an experiment. 

Several years ago, when the production of coffee 
exceeded the wants of the world, the Brazilian gov- 
ernment turned its attention to the cultivation of tea, 
and incurred no little trouble and expense in introdu- 
cing it among the planters. For a while it flourished, 
and great hopes were entertained that it would become 
an important article of export. But notwithstanding 
the high duties on Chinese tea, the cultivation of the 
domestic plant has fallen off, so that the home supply 
forms but a small part of the consumption. Coffee 
had again taken a start, for all the world suddenly 



io8 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



began to require more of it than ever before. Accord- 
ingly the tea-plant withered and died. There is still, 
however, a large plantation of it at this fazenda, and 
it is perhaps as profitable as any other crop raised 
upon it. Especial care is taken in curing it, and it has 
a high reputation throughout the country. We were 
served with some of it for breakfast, and it really 
seemed equal to the " celestial flowery pekoe," which 
old Houqua poured out for us at his hong in Canton, 
years ago. 

Oranges, lemons, grapes, and strawberries abound- 
ed in the gardens. We were told that these were for 
the imperial household. If so, the imperial household 
is large, and we were happy to be included in it for a 
time. So we cheerfully paid our landlord's bill, " ask- 
ing no questions for conscience' sake," but acknowl- 
edging our indirect indebtedness to the emperor for 
the pleasant trip, and for the many good things to be 
had at Santa Cruz. 



IOQ 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Rival Beauties of Nature. — Bays of Naples and Rio de. 
Janeiro. — Descriptio?i of the Latter. — Sublimity of a 
Thunder Storm in the Bay. — Ascent of Mountains near 
Rio. — Adventure of tvjo British Middies. — A Shrewd 
Dentist. — Sharp Practice. — Summer Resorts. — Route to 
Petropolis. — Pleasa?it Illusion. — A Sea of Fog. 

THE bays of Naples and of Rio de Janeiro are the 
rival beauties of the world. For thousands of 
years there was none to dispute the supremacy of the 
first. It is still as lovely and as grand as ever, for 
" time writes no wrinkle on its azure brow." Cities, 
villas, and temples still sit smiling upon its shores, and 
the burning mountain at night throws its lurid glare 
upon its waters, changing the serene sunlight to the 
almost infernal grandeur of illumined shade. All these 
years it had reigned alone. The bay of Rio de Janei- 
ro, like a school girl kept from view, was blooming 
and bright, ready to " come out," as she has done, to 
eclipse the reigning belle. Now that they are both 
known to the lovers of the romantic and the pictur- 
esque, the western rival is more and more appreciated 



no 



TEN MONTiiS IN BRAZIL. 



and admired. It is vain to institute a comparison 
between them. They are alike neither in locality, 
shape, nor coloring ; only in the general undefined 
characteristic of beauty. 

To one coming from sea by night, and finding him- 
self anchored in the harbor at morning, there has 
been a loss not to be estimated — that of the most 
sudden change from Nature's bold sublimity to her 
softest look of loveliness. Most voyagers arrive from 
the north ; but those are most fortunate who first see 
the entrance of the bay when coming from the south, 
where the coast is more mountainous and abrupt. 
Steaming along under these towering cliffs, almost in 
the surf which beats against their base, there is no 
sign of habitation, or of even the smallest nook for 
shelter, — nothing, till, suddenly whirling around, the 
overhanging " Sugar Loaf" seems ready to topple 
upon us from its height of two thousand feet. Then 
appears, on the opposite side, the fort of Santa 
Cruz, the guardian of the port, between which and 
the " Sugar Loaf " is the narrow channel. Here, 
where two ships can scarcely enter side by side, is 
the entrance to a bay fifty miles in circumference, 
with the great city seated in the lap of its verdant 
garden ; all else — its islands, shores, and mountain 
slopes — dressed in summer's never-fading color. It 
is only at the harbor's mouth that the mountains ap- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



Ill 



proach the shore. There, they stand as outposts. 
Within the bay, they recede for ten or twenty miles, 
keeping guard beyond the garden spread out at their 
base. 

But, at times, what a change comes over this 
quiet scene ! Vesuvius, with all its forces of fire, 
cannot hold us in such wonder and realization of 
sublimity. No description can portray a thunder 
storm in this bay — none but that in Byron's thrilling 
words, when he stood upon the banks of Lake Le- 
man, and saw, and heard, the " live thunder. " So it 
plays and echoes here. Not losing itself, as in the 
Alps, and becoming silent in the far distance, — it goes 
from mountain to mountain ; not across, but around 
the whole circuit. Now it bursts with startling crash, 
echoing loud, then faint, and fainter still, till it has 
reached the distant " Organ peaks ; " then, leaping 
from one summit to another, it comes back again 
along the chain on the other side of the bay, and at 
last dies away on the shores of the sea. 

The black clouds seem to have climbed up the 
mountains from their slopes beyond, and now roll 
over upon the plains in bodies of water, coming in 
big drops, then in streams, and at last in cataracts. 

Suddenly, more suddenly than the storm came, 
does it pass away. The sun bursts forth with re- 
newed splendor, and almost instantly the glistening 



112 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



tears of Nature are dried, and she smiles again, as 
fresh, and joyous as ever. 

At a short distance from the city is the Tijuca 
Mountain, which, from its easy access, is one of the 
favorite resorts for summer. The railroad ends at the 
base of the hill, and thence the ascent is made on 
horseback. Bennett's hotel is reached in little more 
than an hour from the city. Beyond is a very cele- 
brated cascade, which, unfortunately, at the time of 
our visit, was deficient in the most important requi- 
site for a cascade ; yet the little straggling streams 
were playing over the great, smooth rock, which was 
generally the floor for the dancing of a large and noisy 
company of waters. 

The Corcovado (or Hunchback) is often ascended. 
From its crest can be taken in, at one view, a fine 
panorama of the bay. The excursion is made by the 
romantic on moonlight nights, in order to be ready to 
see the sun rise. Practical people, too, who wish to 
avoid the heat, often adopt this method. It requires 
but a few hours to "do" the Corcovado; so it was 
one of the things to be done " at any time," and con- 
sequently one of the things we never did. 

The " Sugar Loaf" is so nearly perpendicular that 
its ascent is very rarely attempted. Some years ago, 
two midshipmen of a British frigate, wishing to honor 
Her Majesty's birthday, started on the evening before, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



"3 



and ascended the Sugar Loaf by moonlight, cairying 
a flag and staff with them. In the morning the Eng- 
lish flag was seen flying at the staff on the very pin- 
nacle, while the two scratched and bruised middies 
were reposing from their labors on the sick list. The 
admiral had heard of their exploit, and sent for them 
to come to his cabin. The boys were at first much 
elated by his compliments upon their patriotism and 
perseverance, but were somewhat chopfallen when 
they were ordered to display their perseverance again, 
out of respect for Brazil. They were obliged to re- 
ascend the " Sugar Loaf" at once, and bring down 
the flag. Since this exploit, no other similar attempt 
has been made to take possession of the country. 

Across the bay, which in front of the city is three 
miles wide, are the suburbs of Praia Grande and St. 
Domingo. Many of the foreign residents have their 
dwellings in these towns, so closely and pleasantly 
connected with the city. An enterprising Yankee, 
Dr. R., who, as a dentist, made a fortune from the 
teeth of the people, is doing the same thing " in spite 
of their teeth," again, by the monopoly of the ferry. 
He originated a company, procured all needed privi- 
leges from the government, and ordered ferry-boats 
from home, which, fortunately, arrived safely, notwith- 
standing all their top-hamper and apparent unsea- 
worthiness. They are now in successful operation, 
8 



n 4 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



the sharp practitioner being the agent and pursuing 
the tactics of an accomplished stock-broker. He 
plays the shares up and down to suit his own pur- 
poses, beautifully bamboozling the innocent stockhold- 
ers ; and he gains more money in this way than in a 
regular course of business. The doctor is one of 
the celebrities of Rio. He is universally liked and 
disliked, and the pleasant smile with which he receives 
the money and the curses of the people at the same 
time, is a study in physiognomy. 

Small steamers run often to the various suburbs and 
towns on the bay. There is one of great speed and 
conveniently arranged for passengers, which leaves 
every afternoon on the route for Petropolis — that 
most desirable of all the summer resorts. This town 
is situated on the top of the Serra, at a distance of 
forty miles from Rio de Janeiro. The climate is 
delightfully cool in the morning and evening of the 
hottest midsummer days, and is delicious in winter, 
when only occasionally fires are needed. It is, how- 
ever, subject to heavy showers of rain, that come with 
little warning. Here is the summer palace of the 
emperor, and the foreign ministers, with their at- 
taches^ make it their permanent residence. 

No change can be imagined more refreshing in the 
heat of summer than a sudden transition from the 
tropical languor of the city to the bracing atmosphere 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



"5 



of these mountains. The time spent on board the 
steamboat is but an hour, while we are carried four- 
teen miles on the bay, passing many pretty islets and 
the large Island of Governador. This is the most 
extensive and the most fertile of them all. Very 
picturesque were the faluas, some of them laden with 
fruit, as they passed up and down along our route, 
some working sharply to windward, and others with 
their lateen sails wing-and-winged, flying like birds 
before the sea breeze. 

Arriving at the end of the steamboat route, we take 
the cars upon a short railroad line of twenty miles, 
carrying us over a level, swampy country, abounding 
in mosquitoes, to the foot of the Serra. Again we 
have a transfer, and by far the pleasantest. The car- 
riage road for the remaining distance, built by French 
engineers, is a wonderful triumph over natural ob- 
stacles. The Serra is here very steep, but the road is 
laid out in a zigzag style, like the working of a trench 
in the approach to a fortress. It is perfectly smooth, 
being macadamized throughout. The outside is pro- 
tected by a wall five feet in height. To each carriage 
are harnessed six mules ; these trot briskly up the 
continuous ascent of eight miles, changing but once — 
a performance of which no horses would be capable. 
It matters not on which side of the carriage you take 



Il6 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

your seat, as at every few rods there is a turn admit- 
ting a full view of the magnificent prospect below. 
This is equally captivating, whether ascending in the 
evening or returning in the morning. 

Generally the weather is more clear in the after- 
noon. Then, at every turn, the bay and its surround- 
ings come into full view, and frequently the shadow 
of the mountains, falling over part of the land between 
their base and the water, makes one of the prettiest 
pictures imaginable. It is a favorite walk from the 
town of Petropolis to the brink of the Serra, where 
this may be seen in perfection. 

On the descent there is a charming illusion pro- 
duced by the fog so frequently hanging over the bay, 
at the same time that the air on the heights of the 
Serra is perfectly clear. Then the bay seems to 
extend to the very base of the mountains, and to be 
directly under us. The lower peaks and spurs of 
hills become rocky islands in this sea of fog. The 
illusion is most perfect to a stranger who sees it for 
the first time. For him it is a reality that he cannot 
doubt, until he descends into the mist which he so 
surely thought to be the sea. 

Having reached the " Alto," three thousand feet 
high, there is a slight descent to the village. Then 
there is the evening excitement, as a dozen coaches 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



117 



rattle furiously down the street, with a blowing of 
bugles and a cracking of whips. Groups of ladies 
are waiting upon the verandas of the hotels, to " see 
who has come," and those who have come are quite 
ready for the clothes-brush, the wash-stand, and their 
dinner. 



fid 



CHAPTER XV. 

Petropolis and its People. — The Palace and Gardens. — The 
Coffee Trade. — A Profitable Road. — Amo7ig tJie Rivers. — 
Paying a Visit. — A Pleasa?it Drive. — A Bit of Sentiment. 

— Change of Carriages. — Plague of Flies. — U?twelcome 
Companions. — Jubilant Negroes. — A Jolly Englishman. 

— Mark Tafiley outdo7ie. 

IN the town of Petropolis there are not more than 
fifteen hundred or two thousand inhabitants. Most 
of these are Germans. Many more live on the out- 
skirts of the village, cultivating their little farms and 
vineyards. It is delightful to stroll about among 
them, and to transport yourself, with the air of a 
very little imagination, to the vine-clad fields of Ger- 
many. 

The palace and gardens are shown to the public 
with much civility and attention when the imperial 
family are absent. The building is more convenient 
and comfortable than large or showy. In some of the 
rooms the floors and ceilings are beautifully inlaid 
with the various colored woods for which Brazil is 
celebrated. The gardens were laid out by French- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



men. In most of the public and private gardens of 
the country the French taste predominates. In all of 
them there is a distressing characteristic of patch- 
work regularity. They are often made up of .circles, 
squares, and triangles, the favorite borders of these 
little nuisances being inverted glass bottles. France 
is sometimes called " the garden of the world," but it 
is quite as true that England alone can furnish gar- 
deners. 

Petropolis derives some benefit from the immense 
traffic in coffee, which passes through, on its way from 
the back country to Rio de Janeiro. This will soon 
leave it when the Dom Pedro II. Railroad is con- 
tinued and opened. It is connected with Juiz de 
Fora, a frontier town of the province, by an excellent 
macadamized road of one hundred miles. This 
road belongs to the " Uniao e Industria" Company. 
Stage-coaches run the distance daily in ten hours, and 
carry many passengers over the road, which, at pres- 
ent, forms the only communication with the mines 
of Minas Geraes. 

But the chief profits of the company are derived 
from the tolls on wagons bringing produce and 
returning with merchandise. In the last year there 
were carried over the road twelve thousand tons of 
coffee and twelve thousand passengers. The com- 
pany owns one hundred and fifty wagons and two 



120 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



thousand mules. Besides these, the fazenderos often 
use their own teams in the transportation of their 
produce. When the Uniao e Industria road was 
undertaken, the government guaranteed seven per 
cent, interest per annum on the capital. The invest- 
ment proved better than was anticipated, for the 
stockholders have realized fifteen per cent. ; and now 
that the traffic will be so much injured by the exten- 
sion of the railroad, the government liberally proposes 
to assume the road at cost. 

The town, or rather the post-house, of Entre Rios, 
in the Parahiba valley, is one half the distance to 
Juiz de Fora. For these fifty miles there is a gradual 
descent, and then commences a rise till the same 
altitude is attained at Juiz de Fora as at Petropolis. 
Down the slope from Petropolis runs the Piabana, 
and down from Juiz de Fora runs the Parahibuna. 
Here at Entre Rios (among the rivers) they both 
tumble into the Parahiba, which flows through the 
extensive valley of the same name to the ocean. The 
whole length of the Parahiba, from its source to its 
mouth at Campos, is eight hundred miles. For the 
last part of its course it is not navigable. Navigation 
commences two hundred miles from the sea, and 
continues uninterrupted for two hundred miles inland. 
In connection with the railroad, a large business will 
be opened for steamers, which of course must be 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



121 



built inland, to suit the convenience of this very pecu- 
liar river. At this place the railroad will soon 
intersect the turnpike. 

The town of Parahiba do Sul is eight miles distant 
from Entre Rios. In the city we had often met Mr. 
W., an English engineer engaged in constructing 
this section of the line. He had urged us, in a very 
cordial manner, to visit him at his delightful quarters 
in this charming little town of Parahiba do Sul. The 
present was a good opportunity to do so, and at the 
same time to enjoy a drive over the justly celebrated 
Uniao e Industria road. Unfortunately for me, if not 
for himself, my friend Captain G. was too ill to ac- 
company me. 

I left the hotel at Petropolis on a summer morning, 
the air so fresh that overcoats were needed on the top 
of the coach. It was exhilarating to be rattled along 
at such a slashing pace over this splendid road. 
Winding along through gorges in the Serra, continu- 
ally descending, yet scarcely seeming to do so, we 
followed the stream of the noisy Piabana. Skipping 
and dancing along, now looking poutingly up from 
the deep glens, and then laughing gayly in the bright 
sunlight, this little coquette kept in our company all 
the way, babbling her pretty nonsense and playing 
her music on the pebbles. Little Piabana ! I had 
no one to talk with but you ; so I fell in love with 



122 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



you, and often wished myself in your arms on that 
warm day ! 

For the first part of the distance all was a wild 
forest. Sometimes we were walled in by perpen- 
dicular cliffs, hundreds of feet high, the rocks scarcely 
visible, so covered were they with cactuses, shrubs, 
and flowers. After every ten miles we changed our 
mules. In each team there are generally one or two 
wild animals, harnessed with the others to be broken 
in. There is, therefore, a grand " splurge" in start- 
ing from a post-house, each of the six mules being led 
off by a groom. When they let go, at a word from 
the driver, there is a jolly kicking scene enacted for 
the first quarter or half mile, till at last they all get 
settled down to a comfortable gallop. 

As we descended into tropical regions, we came 
among numerous coffee plantations, extending far on 
both sides of the road. The formation of the land is 
very peculiar. It is made up of little hills, so that 
there is scarcely a level spot of five acres anywhere. 
The northern or sunny sides of these hummocks are 
generally devoted to coffee, while the southern, being 
more shady, are better suited to Indian corn. It is so 
much more profitable to raise coffee, that, although 
corn grows well, there is not enough of it raised for 
consumption on the road. Mr. Morrit, the president 
of the company, had this year imported two cargoes 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



123 



from the Black Sea, and two more were on their way 
from the United States. 

As the day drew on and we continued our descent, 
the sun became scorchingly hot. Nevertheless, the 
rapid gait of our mules kept us in a breeze, and we 
were uncomfortable only for a few moments while 
changing at the post-houses. 

At noon we reached the station of Entre Rios, and 
I left the coach, in order to diverge to Parahiba do 
Sul, the delightful quarters of our friend W. I was 
not sure of finding him at home, as his occupation 
often called him away ; but he had told us that Mrs. 
W. was always at home, and if by any chance she 
should be out, the servants would show us our suites 
of rooms. 

There are three houses in the town of Entre Rios, 
one of which is the venda, and serves as the station- 
house. This is surrounded by open stables, wherein 
are quartered three or four hundred mules. The con- 
sequence of their close neighborhood is, that the flies 
swarm in countless millions. These nuisances, added 
to the intolerable noonday heat of one hundred de- 
grees, made our sojourn of tw r o hours as far from 
agreeable as it could be. The invariable meal of 
carne seca, fat pork, and beans was served ; but 
who that was anticipating a dinner of French or 
English serving, with its champagne accompaniment, 



124 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



could dine from this horrible mixture, stirred in with 
flies? 

At last the coach for Parahiba do Sul was ready. 
It was a two-horse affair, with a back seat protected 
from the sun by a hood. This seat was already in 
the possession of a Brazilian lady and gentleman. 
They had a large quantity of luggage, and were evi- 
dently returning from a journey. Some of the boxes 
were upon the front seat, where there was also a little 
live piece of black female baggage. A bandbox was 
removed, and I was accommodated with a seat by her 
side. I regretted having left my cologne on board the 
ship. The hood of the vehicle was unfortunately at 
such an angle that an umbrella could not be brought 
to bear effectually, and I believe that the attraction of 
the little black wench at my side made the sun hotter 
than ever. My fellow-passengers seemed to consider 
me one de troft, and I certainly thought them three 
too many. As w r e went broiling along, the dust fell 
thick upon us, especially upon the colored young lady 
and myself. She began to assume an appearance of 
pepper and salt, as the yellow sand adhered to her 
shiny skin. We sweated {perspired conveys no ade- 
quate idea), choked, and panted; and there were 
maledictions not a few vented in Portuguese and in 
English, till the eight miles were finally accomplished. 
Then we entered the dirtiest little town imaginable. 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



125 



We drove up to the door of our Brazilian passen- 
gers. They were most boisterously welcomed by a 
troop of darkies. The pleasantest thing that I had 
seen for some hours was the affection of these poor 
negroes. It paid in part for my sufferings, for I love to 
see the milk of human kindness, be the source from 
which it is drawn white or black. Bright shone their 
eyes, and what a display was there of ivory ! 

They fairly seized their mistress — who was a portly 
lady of more than two hundred weight — in their 
arms, and " toted " her off into the house, hugging 
and kissing her, screaming and dancing as they went. 

My companions having left the carriage, I had the 
back seat comfortably to myself for the remaining 
distance of about twenty rods. 

The coachman knew the " Senhor Ingles," for he 
was the only Englishman there. So he drove at once 
to his " delightful quarters." His dwelling was simply 
a one-story adobe house, containing two rooms and a 
closet, the whole concern not exceeding in space that 
of a ship's cabin, and with somewhat less than a hun- 
dredth part of its convenience or comfort ! 

Had he "sold" his guest? No; he fully believed 
that he lived in a sort of paradise ! His wife was ill 
in one little room ; the other apartment was the dining- 
hall, parlor, library, and everything else. The closet 
was the " spare room," in which he lodged his guests 



126 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



(I was glad that G. did not come), and the kitchen 
was the largest of all, for it had earth's remotest 
bounds for its walls, and its ceiling was the sky. 

W. was a combination of Micawber and Mark 
Tapley, hopeful and jolly under all circumstances, 
and most jolly when any one else would be most 
miserable. His reception was enthusiastic in the 
highest degree. 

I was glad to find a basin of water in my " suite of 
apartments/' and was soon ready for dinner. 

Now, W. was fully persuaded that he lived not only 
very comfortably, but in considerable luxury. He 
had a singular preference for canned provisions and 
salt herrings. There was no meat^ to be had in the 
market; but he thought that " fresli meat was bad in 
this climate." He seemed to entertain a different 
opinion at the hotel in the city. It is true there was 
very little air in the dog-hole where he lived ; but the 
" air always gave him the rheumatism." He was a 
very healthy-looking subject. He had no stable for 
his two mules ; but the " rain did them good, as it also 
helped to wash the cook's dishes." Society ? " Pooh ! " 
said he, " if we had our own countrymen to talk with, 
how should we keep up our Portuguese ? And as to 
church, I do love my religion ; and when I return to 
England, how I shall enjoy it, from having been so 
long deprived of its comforts ! " 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 1 27 

To all appearance I fell into his vein for the time, 
and pretended to enjoy everything hugely, being pri- 
vately as miserable as Mark Tapley himself could 
desire. Poor Mrs. W., to my great regret, crept from 
her bed, and did the honors of the dinner-table. Still, 
I thought that perhaps she was glad to see me. W. 
is off sometimes for weeks upon the railroad, leaving 
her alone, with only a black servant, and not a person 
who can speak her language in the place. " What 
singular creatures women are ! " said W., as he smoked 
his pipe, after dinner. " Do you know, my wife is 
sometimes discontented here ? For God's sake, what 
more can a woman want than she has, with every 
comfort about her ! " 

In the evening we walked out, and called upon 
some of elite of the town. One of them kept a 
billiard -room, containing a half-clothed billiard-table. 
Another, who was the merchant prince of the place, 
occupied one room for his dwelling and his office. 
We found him asleep on a pile of bean bags, in the 
midst of his other stock of coffee and carne seca, 
with the aroma of which the apartment was pene- 
trated. The ladies we saw were chiefly Ethiopian. 

On retiring to my " suite," W. cautioned me to 
close the window, awfully hot as it was. 64 They are 
a good, honest set of people here," said he, "but it is 
not well to place temptations in their way. In fact, I 



128 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



left my window open once or twice, and everything 
was stolen out of the house." As it was impossible 
to sleep with the window closed, I left it open, and 
sat by it all night, studying a treatise on engineering 
as attentively as the mosquitoes would permit. In the 
morning, not wishing to be subjected to such carriage 
inconveniences as on the previous day, I accepted the 
offer of a mule from my friend's " stables," and thank- 
ing him for his hospitality, — which he begged me 
"not to mention," — I trotted off to Entre Rios, and 
there awaited the arrival of the return coach for 
Petropolis. 



129 



CHAPTER XVI. 

I?nmigration to Brazil from the Southern States. — Con- 
tradictory Accounts. — Benefit to the Country. — Evils of 
Amalgamation. — Szviss, Germa?i, and French Settlers. — 
A White Slave Trade. — Islanders returning Home. — A 
Pleasant Picture, 

THESE sketches of excursions into the country 
have been given, not only with the intention of 
amusing, but with the hope that some practical hints 
may be taken from them. 

Much has been said in Brazil of the prospect of 
colonization from the Southern States of the Union. 
Doubtless there will be an immigration to some 
extent, but it cannot be as large as many who are 
interested would have us believe. Up to this time 
(September, 1866), the number of immigrants has 
been so small as to be quite insignificant. There 
have arrived at Rio de Janeiro scarcely more than a 
dozen families, and there are probably not more than 
a hundred individuals in all. Some of these have 
already become disgusted, and have returned to their 
9 



I3O TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

old homes. Others seem determined to persevere, 
and are confident of success. 

On our route between Rio de Janeiro and Santos, 
the going and returning immigrants were occasionally 
among my passengers. The stories told by them 
were of a very opposite kind. Individual tempera- 
ment, rather than a disposition to be untruthful, in- 
fluenced many of these reports. According to some, 
who had been " prospecting," and were returning 
to procure furniture and agricultural tools for their 
new homes, here was " a land flowing with milk 
and honey." All that was needed was to clear out 
the Canaanites, and to have a colony of their own, 
with their own laws and customs, when they were to 
be independent of all the world. 

The disappointed homeward-bound men told us 
that it was " a country not fit for a dog ; " that the 
bichos destroyed the cattle, the ants ate the seed faster 
than it could be planted ; there was either too much 
rain or not enough ; the Brazilians were bad neigh- 
bors ; no labor was to be had ; there were no churches 
or schools ; all, all was discouraging and cheerless ! 

We could hardly believe both ; so we looked into 
their faces to find a solution for these discrepancies. 
Some of the men were young, rosy, blue-eyed, and 
cheerful ; others were older, sallow, and morose. 
Accordingly we attributed these contradictions to the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



regular and irregular action of bile. Doubtless we 
judged correctly ; for the centre of thought and mo- 
tive is not the head or the heart — it is the liver ! 

A number of American immigrants have settled in 
Campinas, where they have already commenced the 
cultivation of cotton. More have gone farther south, 
upon the Iguape and Ribeira Rivers, having there, as 
a company, purchased a large tract of land, which 
they intend to plant with sugar-cane. Be these im- 
migrants few or many, their presence will have some 
influence in developing the resources of the country. 
They will introduce machinery, and will bring their 
experience, which is a mighty power as opposed to 
the old, inherited customs of this slowest of slow 
nations. The Brazilians are already beginning to 
avail themselves of this by letting their fazendas on 
shares to those enterprising northerners ; but they w T ill 
not trouble themselves to be learners. All Brazilians 
are not deficient in energy. Far from it. Among 
them are shrewd bankers, astute lawyers, and far 
seeing politicians. But the fazendeiros who are rich 
have generally blundered into their wealth, or nature 
has showered the golden rain upon them, so that 
they could not very well keep out of its way. 

But we speak of the Brazilians as a nation. Time 
only will decide upon the correctness of these opin- 
ions. It does not seem that this people can compete 



132 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



with the Anglo-Saxons, or with that pure Latin race 
from which they originated, and from which they 
have degenerated. If God did make " of one blood 
all the nations of the earth," it was a long time ago ; 
and now, the blood is so certainly not the same, that 
He alone can restore it to its original purity. All the 
endeavors of miscegenationists have proved failures. 

No people has attempted the experiment more 
recklessly than the Brazilians. Wherever their an- 
cestors, the Portuguese, have gone, this has been their 
character. Thus, in India and in China, they have 
brought the human race down to a level scarcely a 
step above the orang-outang. In those regions the 
name of " Pariah Portuguese " signifies all that is 
low, vile, and beastly. Will Brazil rise from her 
present condition to be a fit member of the great 
family of nations, or will she sink lower and lower, 
until she reaches the depths of degradation? The 
world is now so shaken up that nothing can stand 
still upon it, any more than the earth itself can stop. 
If this people of Brazil cannot drag along their car 
of improvement, others will do it for them. 

Years hence, it may appear that one of the results 
of our civil war will have been the repeopling of this 
land from the starting-point of the few dozens of 
Americans who have landed here. The first Ameri- 
can colonists are now to take their turn in the experi- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



!33 



merit of civilizing this empire. More than twenty 
colonies have settled in it within the last thirty years 
— mostly Germans and Swiss. Few of them have 
been successful. 

The Swiss are proverbially a homesick people. 
Many of these have returned — at least many of such 
as could afford to go home, have done so. Some 
few have accustomed themselves to their circum- 
stances, and these have all settled in the mountain- 
ous regions, where they do not care to become rich. 
They are content with their old pursuits, such as 
they loved in their native land. Here, too, they 
can find rugged mountains and green valleys. True, 
there are no glaciers or avalanches of snow, but there 
are hail-storms and mud-slides, and goitres are almost 
as common here as in Switzerland. Happy Swiss, 
who can find so many things like home ! 

Nor are the Germans more enterprising than the 
Swiss. They have their little market gardens, and 
vineyards, and they can have sauerkraut and beer, as 
in Vaterland. As a people they do not care so much 
for the old home as the Swiss, but are more ready 
to make an old home of the new. Here they main- 
tain their former customs in dress as well as in living. 
Hard, leather-faced-looking men they are, w T ho wear 
their heavy frocks and blue woollen stockings, regard- 
less of the thermometer ; and straight, up-and-down 



i34 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



women, with yellow, braided hair, — uncovered in 
rain or sunshine, — with short dresses and feet heavy 
enough to ballast them against the loads carried upon 
their heads. They all drink their lager beer, and 
gallop like troop horses at their Sunday night balls. 
They are happy in their way, without a thought of 
coffee, cotton, or sugar-cane. 

France has her representatives, too ; but they are 
scarcely better suited to grand purposes than the 
Swiss or Germans. Yet they perform their mission 
of introducing civilization of the French sort. They 
teach the people style in dress, music, dancing, 
economy, refinement, and last but not least, cookery. 
If they can make a revolution in this one particular 
alone, they will do their share in the work of regenera- 
tion. France has reached the highest mysteries of 
the cuisine, while Brazil is wallowing in its very 
pig-troughs. 

But Frenchmen are not good colonists, in the sense 
in which we are just now considering the advantages 
from colonists required by this country. They are 
not enterprising ; they do not care for plantations ; 
they are seldom found asking for railroad or steam- 
ship contracts, or concerning themselves in any way 
with public affairs. They live together, love to- 
gether, and quarrel together, in and about the Rua 
Ouvidor, in Rio de Janeiro, where there are the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



135 



finest shops in the city, — a miniature Rue de la Paix. 
It has its restaurants, cafes, and billiard-rooms, and 
near it is the public garden. What more can a 
Frenchman want, unless it be his boulevards? These 
he cannot have, and so he sometimes sighs for them, 
and dreams, as all Frenchmen dream, of the day 
when his " little commerce " shall have made his 
fortune ;. pictures to himself the return voyage, and, 
as the Indian thinks of his far-off happy hunting- 
grounds, so the jolly little Frenchman makes himself 
happy in this present life in Brazil with the hope 
of a heavenly one — in Paris ! 

The French congregate mostly in the cities ; but 
they wander about the country as pedlers, and are 
often met upon the road, trudging along under their 
packs of fancy goods, gayly singing to themselves, and 
talking to their dogs. What care they to think how 
bugs, priests, ants, custom-houses, and all other 
nuisances standing in the way of civilization and 
progress, are to be overcome ! 

The Italians cannot be considered as colonists. 
They come with their hand-organs, buy monkeys, 
grind away for a few years, and go home. 

There is something very like a white slave trade 
going on with the Western Islands, but generally 
there is nothing objectionable in it. Now and then 
a Portuguese ship arrives with a company of these 



136 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



islanders. Notice is given in the papers that she is 
anchored off the Isle of Cobras. The intimation is 
sufficient. Immediately she is surrounded by boat- 
loads of eager purchasers. The cargo, mostly of 
young men and girls, is taken on board by the captain, 
with the understanding that on arrival they shall be 
temporarily sold for the price of their passages. It 
is just to these poor people to say that they are 
generally faithful to their engagements, seldom leav- 
ing the masters to whom they are bound until they 
have earned their freedom. They then commence 
work upon their own account, and labor with the 
greatest energy and perseverance to accumulate their 
little fortunes. 

As might be expected, there is occasionally some 
immorality in these transactions. But many of the 
females come over with the express purpose of thus 
disposing of themselves, having very correct ideas 
of the morality of the country that gives them so good 
a chance of success. Many of the more respectable 
class marry and settle here, but the men generally 
expect to return. When there are enough of them 
who are satisfied with the results of their labor, they 
frequently charter a small brig to take them home. 
There is something very pleasant in the scenes of 
these departures. 

The picture of the Plymouth pilgrims austerely 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 1 37 

going to sacrifice themselves in a wintry desert to 
a religious idea, is familiar to us all, but it does not 
make us cheerful. I wish I could paint the scene 
of one of these little brigs getting under way, upon 
a canvas large enough to give expression to each 
happy face, and to the tearful, half-envious looks 
that peer up from the boats alongside ; and then the 
waving of handkerchiefs, that last adieu, as the top- 
sails feel the breeze ! It would be a good picture ; 
for it would always be seen in the sunlight of a 
smile. 



138 



CHAPTER XVII. 

History and Government of Brazil. — Unquiet Condition of 
the Spanish-American States. — Gover7ime?tt of the Coun- 
try by the Portuguese. — Emigration of the Royal Family 
to Brazil. — Their Return to Portugal. — Independence 
Declared. — Abdication of the First Emperor. — Accession 
of the Present Ruler. — Powers of the Emperor and the 
Parliament. 

IN the early part of the present century , the history 
and government of Brazil would have been mat- 
ters of greater interest than is felt for them now. At 
that time public attention was drawn to the South 
American colonies, which were imitating our ex- 
ample in throwing off the yoke of the mother coun- 
try and acquiring national independence. This they 
gained, and we have seen how little some of them 
deserved a liberty which they so speedily desecrated 
and converted into anarchy. 

Revolutions, " pronouncings," and " declarations " 
have succeeded each other so rapidly, that we are 
tired of hearing of them ; and the politics of the whole 
southern continent are regarded by us with less 
interest than the triumph or defeat of a temperance 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



r 39 



law in one of our own states. Indeed, it is quite use- 
less for people to waste their time in reading about 
these oft-repeated convulsions ; for a single year may 
give a different aspect to the whole, and it would 
require a good memory to treasure up the story of 
all their counter-revolutions. Such a faculty might 
be more usefully employed. 

Still, the history of these states affords a lesson to 
such enthusiasts as think to revolutionize the world 
in a day ; to those who expect to reap the fruits of 
liberty without planting the seeds and watching their 
growth. 

But the empire of Brazil differs from the others, in- 
asmuch as its emancipation from colonial dependence 
was more gradual ; and the result thus far has con- 
sequently been more satisfactory. In common with 
all her neighbors, although not like those of Spanish 
origin claiming the name of a republic, her constitu- 
tion is modelled after that of the United States. 

It is nearly four centuries since Brazil was dis- 
covered, and though now entirely independent of 
Portugal, it has always been governed by the same 
royal family. For a period of its early history, the 
occupation of some of its seaport towns was disputed 
by the French ; but they were finally driven off, and 
the country was ever afterwards governed as a vice- 
royalty of Portugal, until, in 1807, the two countries 



140 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



singularly changed relations, Brazil becoming the 
seat of government. 

Portugal temporized to no purpose with Napoleon, 
having yielded to his pretensions until warned of the 
futility of such measures by the example of the un- 
successful servility of Spain. Then the royal family 
of Braganza took a step which astonished all Europe. 
It was regarded as cowardly, but in their helpless 
condition it was certainly politic. 

It was in order to save bloodshed, and with the 
hope that the invader would spare his subjects in 
consequence of his own unqualified submission, that 
Dom Joao, after counselling his afflicted people — 
who desired to detain him, and would have main- 
tained his rights at all hazards — to obey Napoleon 
implicitly, embarked in haste with his family. He 
bade adieu to the thousands who had assembled to 
witness the sad spectacle, and left his native shores 
to seek a refuge in this distant colony. 

Thus the loss to Portugal proved a gain to Brazil. 
She assumed the first rank, and, after the general 
peace of Europe, still maintained it, the sovereign 
preferring to remain here, and to govern the old 
country with a delegated power for some years. 

In 1 82 1, the old King Joao VI. had become dis- 
gusted with the new world ; and his enemy, Napoleon, 
having no longer possession of Portugal, he returned 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



to his home, leaving his son Pedro to govern Brazil 
as viceroy. But the Brazilians, having once assumed 
the first rank, were naturally unwilling to be super- 
seded again by Portugal. Accordingly, in the follow- 
ing year they declared their independence, installing 
the viceroy as emperor, with the title of Pedro I. The 
Portuguese made a show of resistance, but the whole 
affair was accomplished without bloodshed, to the 
general satisfaction of all parties. 

To sum up the subsequent history of the Brazilian 
throne, it is sufficient to say, that the first emperor, 
on account of his unwillingness to grant the people 
a liberal constitution, was obliged to abdicate in 
1 83 1. Like his father, he took refuge in the home 
of his ancestors. At that time the present emperor 
was a child. The empire was accordingly governed 
by a regency until the year 1840, when Dom Pedro 
II., although only fifteen years of age, assumed the 
supreme power. 

Upon the abdication of Dom Pedro I. the con- 
stitution was altered to a more republican form. 
The power of the emperor was limited ; for, although 
he holds a higher title, and receives a salary fifteen 
times larger than the President of the United States, 
yet his prerogative is less in many respects. The 
veto power amounts to but very little. If an enact- 
ment passes both houses, he has a right to with- 



142 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



hold his sanction at first. It is then sent back to 
them, and if they pass it again, even by no greater 
majority than before, it becomes a law. The lower 
house is elected from the various provinces, very 
much as our House of Representatives is chosen, but 
the senators are elected for life, or during good 
behavior. They are dignified with titles which are 
not hereditary. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



The Monroe Doctrine. — Forms of Government. — Foreign 
Enterprise in Brazil. — Improvement of the Capital. — 
Gratitude to a Benefactor. — Iron-clads arid Torpedoes. — 
A " Co?ifederate " Speculation. — A " Slow " People. — 
The three Professions — Adaptatio?i of Religions. — Mis- 
sionary Effort zVz Brazil. 

TUST now with us there is a great political 



%3 catch word called the " Monroe Doctrine." Some 
people imagine it to mean the annexation of the 
whole western continent to the United States. They 
might reflect, from the experience we have lately 
had, that a ship loaded too heavily at both ends is 
liable to " break her back." But let the Monroe 
Doctrine in its modified sense be extended to Brazil. 
Let us make an American state of it, without the 
process of annexation. 

No matter what the form of government may be, for 
the theory of this is better than our own, while in prac- 
tice it is perhaps worse. A limited monarchy of the 
mildest type, a Senate elected for life, subject to im- 
peachment, and a House of Representatives chosen 




i44 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



periodically by the people, form a system which is cer- 
tainly free from some of the objections raised against 
ours. 

But let the government, the custom-house, the post- 
office, and the courts be directed by North American 
intellects, the soil be cultivated by North American en- 
ergy and machinery, down will go the tottering relics 
of barbarism ; and as the Indians have died away from 
among us, and the Africans are now perishing, so will 
this composite, mongrel, effete race disappear from 
the world. It is destiny. Philanthropy, philosophy, 
and religions, are but egg-shells on the track of the 
irresistible engine — fate ! 

Even now there is scarcely undertaken an enterprise 
of the least importance that is not conceived and ex- 
ecuted by foreigners. A few years ago there was not 
a drain in the city of Rio de Janeiro ; all the filth and 
offal were then carried on the heads of negroes to the 
water side. The stench was abominable, and frequent 
accidents from collisions were seriously ridiculous. 
The streets were then rather obstructed than paved 
with rocks of various sizes and angles, and melancholy- 
looking oil lamps glimmered only occasionally at the 
corners. Now, the city is drained very thoroughly ; 
many of the streets are russ-paved, and are well light- 
ed with gas. All these and many more improvements 
have been accomplished by foreigners. The natives 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



H5 



are becoming disgusted with the increasing order and 
cleanliness. 

But there is one public work to the credit of which 
a Brazilian is fairly entitled — the aqueduct. This is 
a fine piece of architecture. The grateful country- 
men of the man who conceived it have deified him. 
In the palace square is a monument with an inscrip- 
tion to this effect in Latin : " While Phcebus in his 
course through the skies was burning up all the land 
and the people, Vasconcellos conquered his fury by 
introducing water into the city. Return, O Phcebus ! 
and make your obeisance to this excellent man ! " 
This is rather strong language, but it seems not to 
affect the sun, for he still shines spitefully hot, and 
bakes the ground over the head of Vasconcellos. 

All the arms used in the present unhappy war with 
Paraguay are imported, and, with trifling exceptions, 
the navy has been built abroad. The "so-called" 
ironclads are the veriest absurdities of naval archi- 
tecture. It is just to other foreigners to say that 
the contractors who furnished them are Englishmen. 
They have provided coffins for the poor Brazilians, 
and, if report speaks true, have pocketed more than 
half their cost. But then it is only just to the English 
to say that they are not concerned in another specula- 
tion, the credit of which belongs solely to some of 
our late " Confederates." 

10 



146 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



The Paraguayans, wishing to blow up the Brazilian 
fleet, employed some of these gentlemen to place tor- 
pedoes in convenient localities for that purpose. The 
Brazilians, naturally desiring their removal, contracted 
with other experts to take them away. It was pro- 
ductive of more business and of easier profits for 
these two parties to unite their talents, and to play 
into each other's hands. So, in a very quiet manner, 
they made a joint stock of both companies. The 
sunken torpedoes were then very easily discovered and 
removed ; of course it was necessary to replace them 
with others, and when these others were taken up, more 
were to be laid down. The joint concern therefore 
did a very profitable business, the security of the Par- 
aguayans and the danger to the Brazilians remaining 
about the same, at a trifling additional cost to both 
nations. 

If foreigners conferred no greater benefit upon the 
country than accrues from such sharp practices as 
these, it were better for Brazil to be left to herself. It 
is true that Americans and Englishmen, in the real 
good they accomplish, are actuated as much as these 
roguish adventurers by a desire of profit. Still, while 
they have made fortunes richly deserved,- they have 
greatly benefited the Brazilians at the same time. 

But these people are slow to take advantage of the 
improvements almost forced upon them. The Dom 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



147 1 



Pedro II. Railroad has been in operation eight years 
for a considerable distance from the capital ; and yet, 
if you go twenty miles into the country, you will see 
respectable old fogies jogging towards the city on 
muleback, at the rate of four or five miles an hour, 
and you will meet cart-loads of produce and merchan- 
dise passing inward and outward. Everything is 
slow. The " law's delay/' with us a great nuisance, is 
rather a luxury here. They enjoy its slow processes, 
as a Turk enjoys his prolonged bath. The original 
"Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce" was an affair of a day, com- 
pared to a Brazilian lawsuit. I know nothing from 
experience of the native medical practice, but if it is 
like their other modes of doing business, it cannot be 
easy for the physician to determine upon his medicine 
before the patient dies or recovers. 

As for divinity, the seven years' study required for 
this, as well as for law and medicine, at the University 
of San Paulo, is short enough for learning the names 
of all the saints, and paying that attention to them 
which their worship requires. 

In no country could the " three learned professions " 
be more advantageously dispensed with than in this. 
The law would seem to be only for vindictive people, 
who wish to pursue those whom they hate even to the 
third and fourth generations. The medical profession 
is much divided between allopathy and homoeopathy. 



# I4S 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



The newspapers are full of their discussions, for 
which they must have a great deal of spare time ; 
meanwhile, the people allow foreign enterprise to 
carry the palm away from all these disputants. 

More successful than all their windy arguments on 
one side of the daily yornal do Comercio, are the 
announcements upon the other side, of the wonderful 
" pilulas do Dr. Ayer," and those of Dr. Holloway, — 
the Yankee quack, by the bye, being considerably 
ahead, — and of the various " Sarsaparilla " com- 
pounds. 

Be it remembered that this is a land of sarsaparilla ; 
and yet these innocents are so gulled, that, instead of 
using their own pure medicine, freely offered by Na- 
ture, they will pay almost any price for imported mo- 
lasses, water, and potash. 

If the systems of law and medicine are adapted to the 
habits of the people, doubtless so is that of religion. It 
may possibly be heretical to entertain the idea, but it 
really seems to me that systems of religion, like styles 
of dress, articles of food and drink, tenements, per- 
sonal habits, languages, and the local conditions of life, 
are adapted by the Creator to given periods and times, 
to various climates and races, and that they will con- 
tinue so to exist to the end of the world, as they be 
gji\ somewhere very near its commencement. 

Missionaries believing in the speedy approach of the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



I 49 



millennium, and considering themselves commissioned 
to hasten it, have been at work in this " field." The 
Rev. Mr. Fletcher was one of these pioneer Protestants. 
He travelled about the country occasionally, collecting 
materials for his book, and, as he tells us, was in the 
habit of paying for his food and lodgings with " the 
bread of life," by reading to the fazenderos and the 
slaves from his pocket Testament. His success was 
small, for it is to be feared that the people have be- 
lieved as little in his Testament as in his book. 

There are two or three missionaries still occupied 
in the hopeless task of converting the Brazilians. The 
Rev. Mr. Simonton, who is stationed at Rio de Janeiro, 
is a most enthusiastic and laborious man. He has 
acquired such a thorough knowledge of the language 
that he uses it fluently in his prayers and sermons, and 
publishes a weekly religious paper in Portuguese. 
The Rev. Mr. Blackford, at San Paulo, is another 
indefatigable missionary. 

It is very possible, and even probable, that Protes- 
tantism may, by and bye, be the prevailing religion of 
Brr.zil ; but it seems impossible that it should be the 
religion of this present Brazilian people. The whole 
tree must be transplanted. It cannot be grafted into 
this stock. The nearest approach to conversion of 
which the Brazilians are susceptible is reformation 
in their own religion. 



*5° 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Influence of the Catholic Religion. — Its Power i?i Brazil. — • 
Character of its Ceremonies. — Morals of Clergy ana 
People. — Illustrative Anecdote. — Mixed Blood. — The 
Census. — Slaves Drifting Southward. — Extent of Coffee 
Cultivatio?i. — Political Parties. — Anti- Slavery and Re- 
publicanism. — Succession to the Throne. — Character of 
the Emperor. 



'HE Roman Catholic religion is a mighty state 



A engine wherever it prevails, except in the 
United States ; and there it is often a scarcely less 
powerful engine of party. Governments encourage 
its superstitious observances in order to insure the 
fealty of the priesthood, and to make themselves 
stable by thus binding the people. With us, a stand- 
ing army of tax collectors, postmasters, and editors, 
serves instead of priests, and they manifest an equally 
blatant loyalty. 

The government of Brazil would not stand one day 
without the influence of the clergy. The ignorant 
masses would be the dupes of political adventurers, 
and instead of all this harmless mummery and non- 




TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



sense, there would be bloodshed and hopeless anar- 
chy. Still, it is to be regretted that the emperor's 
seat is not secure enough for him to put down, at 
least, some of the puerilities and absurdities. It is a 
humiliating idea that men should be made idiots in 
order to be good subjects. 

We had seen the Roman Catholic religion in all 
parts of the world, and frequently observed how it 
was modified or intensified to suit national exigencies. 
We had seen it in Rome, where the headquarters of 
its ceremonies are admitted to be the headquarters 
of its abuses ; but nowhere, excepting perhaps in i 
Spain, is it so much like child's play as in Brazil. 
Elsewhere, sensible and educated men comply with £ 
some of its unimportant observances, from habit or 
from interested motives ; but here, the most potent, 
grave, and reverend senhors "assist" with beauti- 
fully pious decorum at the wax-doll exhibitions and 
performances of miracles. On these occasions not a 
smile is seen, except on the face of a foreigner, or 
in the sly twinkle of a priest's eye. 

The morals of the clergy are such as would be 
considered depraved in any other country than this. 
But morals, like other things, are comparative. Little 
hills would be mountains in Holland, and some of 
our mountains would be mole-hills if one stumbled 
over them among the Andes. It is true that the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



priests almost universally keep their mistresses, that 
they seduce many fair penitents, and are allowed 
all sorts of intimacies with married ladies, about 
which the husbands are not much concerned ; for 
these people revel in such beastly impurities, that 
little priestly sins like these may be fairly looked upon 
as venial, and even as evincing rather a high standard 
of morality in the clerical profession ! 

If it is considered that these remarks upon religion 
and morality are overdrawn, the reader is referred to 
" Life in Brazil," by Ewbank, "Le Bresil tel quHl 
est" and u Les Femmes et les Mceiirs de Bresil" by 
Expilly. Ewbank devotes the greater part of his 
book to the churches and religious observances in Rio 
de Janeiro. He speaks, as I do, from observation ; 
but his observation was more general and his oppor- 
tunities more extended than mine ; and his accounts 
are intensified in proportion. They are admitted to 
be true. 

Expilly had seen some things in Paris. Neverthe- 
less, this not over-sensitive Frenchman was shocked 
by what he saw in Brazil. Here is one of his stories 
of an enterprising Portuguese. In a condensed and 
expurgated translation I venture to repeat it. 

The man was married, and w r as very poor — all 
his property consisting of a negro, a negress, and a 
miich cow. He undertook to make money system- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



153 



atically, b;y the increase of his 64 stock. 99 Even with 
the aid of the cow in weaning, he could not expect 
more than one black harvest in a year. But mulattoes 
are as valuable as negroes. Think, then, by what 
double prostitution he succeeded in obtaining two in 
each season — one being the half of his own flesh and 
blood, the other belonging in the same proportion to 
his wife ! So it went on, year after year, the children 
being sold when of suitable age ; and by this com- 
merce, the worthy couple lived and prospered ! It 
does not appear that the affair " excited remark" in 
the neighborhood. 

Some years ago, when a census was to be taken, 
it was proposed to divide the classes of the commu- 
nity, and to enumerate separately the white, black, 
and mixed. The Brazilians themselves laughed at 
the imbecile who wasted his ink in the suggestion. 
" Mixed ! 99 There is black blood everywhere stirred 
in ; compounded over and over again, like an apothe- 
cary's preparation. African blood runs freely through 
marble halls, as well as in the lowest gutters, and 
Indian blood swells the general current. There is 
no distinction between white and black, or any of 
the intermediate colors, which can act as a bar to 
social intercourse or political advancement. 

The whole population of Brazil, according to the 
last census, was 95083,755, of whom i,357 ? 4i6 were 



r 54 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



slaves ; of the remaining 7,726,339, called " free," it 
was wisely determined to make no further classifi- 
cation. 

The warm and cold regions of the southern hemi- 
sphere being the opposites of ours, it would naturally 
be supposed that the majority of the slaves would be 
found in the north. It has been always conceded 
thrt if slave labor is profitable anywhere, it is so in 
the hottest districts of a country. Thus it was proved 
to be in the United States, where it was first abol- 
ished in the north, from motives of economy rather 
than of humanity. In Brazil it would at first appear 
that the rule of climate is not the same ; but the exist- 
ence of a greater number of slaves in the more tem- 
perate part of the empire is easily explained. 

The northern provinces have partially freed them- 
selves from slavery ; not because it was not a paying 
institution to them, but because it paid so much better 
in the middle and southern parts of the country. 
Therefore the temptation to sell their slaves was irre- 
sistible to the northerners, who are now manifesting 
a great deal of virtuous indignation at the sins of 
the people who paid them so liberally for what, at 
the time, they were perfectly willing to consider as 
4 ' property." 

There is consequently a political anti-slavery party. 
I t is constantly pressing its views on the government, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



155 



and will doubtless be ultimately successful. It is 
made up from the provinces around the equator, 
extending from Amazonas to Pernambuco ; while the 
more southern districts of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, 
as well as the almost temperate regions from San 
Paulo to the borders of Paraguay, still hold on to the 
" institution " with South Carolinian pertinacity. In 
our contest both sides appealed to the Bible. Here 
the church furnishes arguments for either. 

Brazil, however, has not such difficulties to over- 
come as those encountered in the United States. 
There is no appalling question of races to meet — no 
such problem here as w 7 e are now solving — whether 
distinct races shall live harmoniously, working, vot- 
ing, and governing together, or whether the weaker 
race shall succumb before the superior. Here the 
general fusion, already so far advanced, will be com- 
plete, and we may predict the annihilation of the 
whole unnatural mixture, rather than that of either 
of its ingredients. 

The diminution of slavery in the northern prov- 
inces, as has been observed, was owing to the demand 
for negroes farther south. This was occasioned by a 
sudden revolution of the taste of the world in favor 
of coffee, not long ago. Many of us can remember 
the time when the chief supplies of this article came 
from Java and Sumatra. A very little was derived 



i56 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



from Mocha, and a larger quantity, though of an infe- 
rior quality, was grown in the West India Islands 
and on the Spanish Main. 

At that time sugar was the chief staple of Brazil. 
It was made in all parts of the empire where the cli- 
mate would allow the cultivation of the cane. Then 
came a time of great depression for coffee, so that the 
price for which it was sold was not sufficient to pay 
for the cost of raising it. The production was in 
advance of the consumption. The cultivation, ac- 
cordingly, was very much diminished. So great was 
the reaction that coffee soon became scarce, and con- 
sequently dear. The world seemed to become aware 
of its loss, and then began to consider what was be- 
fore a luxury, to be a prime necessity. 

No other country possesses such advantages of cli- 
mate and soil, and of nearness to American and 
European markets combined, for the cultivation and 
sale of coffee, as Brazil. All at once the middle and 
southern provinces were planted with coffee trees, to 
the almost entire abandonment of sugar-cane ; so that 
now these districts are supplied from the north with 
the sugar they require for domestic use. 

In the year i860 the value of coffee raised in Brazil 
was $40,000,000. During our civil war there was a 
falling off in the production, owing partly to the fact 
that the south-western states of the Union, the great 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



157 



consumers of Rio coffee, were shut up. For a long 
time the people of the northern and eastern states 
consumed very little of it. Nothing but its cheapness 
has at length reconciled us to it in a degree. By and 
bye, when we become accustomed to it, we may 
perhaps prefer it to Java coffee, as they now do in 
the west. 

The increased demand has so stimulated the pro- 
duction that it has become difficult to obtain labor. 
The domestic slave trade is consequently very brisk, 
and the negroes are withdrawn more and more from 
the northern provinces. The foreign traffic has been 
effectually abolished. Not a cargo has been landed 
on these shores for ten years, so severe and so rigidly 
enforced is the penalty. The importation of negroes 
was connived at before, but Northern influence will 
permit it no longer. 

The anti-slavery party is already a disturbing po- 
litical element, which will accomplish its work by 
fusing with one of the great parties. Then it will be 
no longer a servant or an accomplice, but will aspire 
to the rank of master and principal, as it has done in 
the United States. 

Besides the anti-slavery party, there are now three 
others in Brazil, all very powerful and nearly balanced 
— the conservative, the radical, and the republican. 
The two former are imperialist. They both favor a 



158 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

continuation of the monarchy. One is what would be 
called in England " Tory." The term " Whig" to a 
certain extent would apply to the latter. 

The " Republican" party is not so named for clap- 
trap or ad cafitandum, but it is bona fide what the 
term signifies. It proposes to unseat the emperor ; to 
do away with all titles and all insignia of royalty or 
nobility ; to take — as all the rest of South America 
and Mexico have done — the great republic of the 
North for its exemplar. This party, again, is sub- 
divided between immediate and ultimate republicans. 
The former are for upsetting the throne at once, and 
tumbling the emperor off. The latter are willing 
that he should remain for the rest of his life, and then 
they propose to overturn his seat before his daughter 
has time to climb upon it. If they play this game 
they must be very prompt in their operations. For 
should that young lady once get established there, her 
enemies will regret their temerity or their delay. 

The only surviving children of the royal family are 
Isabella, wife of the Count d'Eu, a grandson of 
Louis Philippe, and Leopoldina, wife of the Duke 
de Saxe, one of that great German family whose pe- 
culiar avocation seems to be the renovation of effete 
royalty. 

While we were in Rio de Janeiro, the youngest 
sister became the mother of a little prince. The 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



159 



event was joyfully announced by the ringing of bells 
and the firing of cannon. There was greater excite- 
ment than the occasion seemed to demand, for the 
baby is a very distant heir to the throne, even if the 
throne shall have an heir. Isabella is the legal suc- 
cessor. In case of her death without issue, the crown 
will be inherited by her sister. The little prince 
must therefore rely not only on the poverty of French 
stock, but upon the death of his aunt and his mother, 
who are both very young ladies, in the enjoyment of 
excellent health. By the time that old age carries 
them away, the prince himself may die, or, what is 
more likely, the monarchy may cease to exist. 

The emperor has a merited reputation for scientific 
attainments and philosophy. He is an admirer and 
personal friend, as well he may be, of Agassiz, who 
has been with him daily at the palace, giving him 
an account of his researches on the banks of the 
Amazon. 

We attended some of the professor's lectures, which 
were delivered before a large audience in the univer- 
sity hall. The royal family were always present, and 
partook, in the highest degree, of the general inter- 
est. Their eyes were never diverted from the lecturer 
or his black-board. The expression on the face of 
the Princess Isabella was intense. It is far from 
being pretty, for it is masculine ; but, if physiognomy 



l6o TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

tells anything, it speaks of intelligence, energy, and 
such firmness as can be dispensed with in the conjugal 
relation, but is invaluable in affairs of state. It is 
Elizabethan. 

Upon some points the emperor is obstinate ; but his 
general policy is rather of the laisser-faire descrip- 
tion. There are many things going on which he does 
not see because he turns his head the other way. 
When anything perplexes him, he rushes into his 
library or his laboratory, or among his bugs and fishes, 
and remains till the storm blows over and the discord- 
ant political atoms settle down, after the little whirl- 
wind has subsided. If he had merely a few scamps 
to deal with, he doubtless has resolution enough to 
bring them to order ; but where there are such univer- 
sal rascality and corruption, he thinks it scarcely 
worth his while to combat a system which he can- 
not overcome. 



i6i 



CHAPTER XX. 



The War iviih Paraguay. — Disappointment and Discourage- 
ment. — Religious Toleration. — Festival of St. George. — 
A Military Saint*. — Ra?ik and Pay. — His Saintshif 
Tried and Punished. — The Emperor in Farce. — Brazil- 
ian Superstitions. 

r 1 THE war in which Brazil is now engaged was un- 



JL dertaken with high hopes of immediate success. 
The activity of the emperor raised the enthusiasm of 
the people, and his personal presence gave courage to 
the army. For more than two years, with alternate 
successes and disasters, this war has dragged its slow 
length along, and at the present time appearances 
are very discouraging. The Brazilians regret that 
they undertook it, but they see no honorable way of 
withdrawing without acknowledging a defeat. Even 
were they to accomplish the object of increasing their 
territory, and could they succeed in trampling Paraguay 
utterly under foot, they would be poorly compensated 
for all their loss of blood and treasure. The money 
that has been expended as much for " shoddy" and pri- 
vate emolument as for the war, might have been better 




ii 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



invested in the internal improvements so much needed. 
War is generally a bad speculation for nations. They 
always suffer, while individuals on both sides are the 
gainers. Brazil has made this discovery. 

The emperor still goes about, examining the dock- 
yards, the ships, and the machine-shops, while there is 
an air of dejection upon his face painful to behold. 
He is a learned man ; but it must be remembered that 
all his knowledge is derived from books and from 
foreigners, who are generally unwilling to give him 
any information that would be disagreeable, however 
useful it might be to him. He has had no opportu- 
nity for observation abroad. He has told Professor 
Agassiz that the great desire of his heart is to visit the 
United States, and that he hopes to do so when this 
war is over. 

Although a strict Catholic himself, he tolerates all 
religions. Still, he declares that there must be one for 
the state ; and what religion can be better adapted to 
Brazil than his own ? Certainly no other. A good 
son of the church, he is submissive to the priesthood. 
In return for his obedience, they exercise their influ- 
ence over the people, keeping them loyal to the 
government. 

One of the great holidays is the festa of St. 
George, the patron saint of the empire in general. 
Each city has a sort of deputy patron, whose worship 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



is duly celebrated on his particular day. St. Sebastian 
has especial charge of Rio de Janeiro, and has his 
great day, like the rest. But when the annual feast of 
St. George returns, every town and hamlet, from the 
Amazonas to the Rio Grande, has its greatest proces- 
sion of the season. The saint has his headquarters at 
the capital. 

I do not know if this St. George is the same that 
has taken England under his protection. Here he is 
Colonel St. George ; for, although he died and was 
buried ages ago, and Brazil is now enjoying the 
advantage of his intercession, his earthly image holds 
the rank of colonel in the army, and draws a yearly 
pay of three thousand five hundred dollars ! Of 
course the priests draw it for him ; and they pretend 
that it is all invested in jewels and dress for the idol. 

Until the present year this buckram saint has been 
mounted on horseback and paraded through the city, 
following the " body of God," for his day is likewise 
the day of Corpus Christi. To our great disappoint- 
ment, this part of the ceremony was not observed. It 
would be charitable to account for the omission by 
attributing it to the advancement of light and knowl- 
edge ; whereas it is to be explained by a greater 
absurdity than the performance itself. 

Last year the attendant buckled Colonel St. George's 
sword so carelessly that it dropped and seriously 



164 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

wounded the toe of a priest. The aid-de-camp and 
the saint w-ere both tried for the offence, and both 
were found guilty. The officer was sentenced to im- 
prisonment for three years, and the punishment of the 
saint was confinement in his closet and prohibition 
from appearing on parade in the procession of Corpus 
Christi ! 

As the expenses of the war are heavy just now, it 
might have been better to stop the wooden colonel's 
pay ; but this idea was far from occurring to the priest- 
hood. 

So the procession lost one of its chief attractions for 
us. It was something, however, to see the emperor 
in a new character — something, too, unpleasant and 
revolting. 

It was a blazing day in May. Long before noon 
the procession began to form in the streets. This was 
composed of the military and of all the orders of 
ecclesiastical and lay brotherhoods. Every individual 
was bareheaded, and carried a lighted torch, the flame 
of which was scarcely distinguishable in the intense 
glare of the sun. The streets and balconies were 
crowded with broiling spectators. 

Soon after noon the procession moved along 
through the Rua Direita, the Broadway of Rio de 
Janeiro. At its head we could see, rising and -fall- 
ing, a great silk awning, preceded by boys swinging 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



censers of incense. Underneath it walked the arch- 
bishop, the canopy being held over his head by the 
emperor, the Count d'Eu, and the ministers of state, 
all bareheaded. This humiliating act was performed 
to show the obedience of the civil to the ecclesiastical 
power. We were looking on from the balcony of the 
hotel, Professor Agassiz standing among the specta- 
tors. As the emperor passed, he looked up with the 
most serio-comic expression that can be imagined. 
It seemed to say, " You see, my friend, what I have 
to do ; but I am rather ashamed of myself." He must 
have been glad that St. George was out of sight, 
undergoing his punishment. 

The Brazilians treat their saints with a great deal of 
consideration, so long as the saints are well disposed 
towards them, listening to their prayers, healing their 
diseases, and prospering their business affairs. Then 
the Brazilian is a grateful being. He adorns the 
shrine of his benefactor, dresses his image in costly 
robes, presents it with jewelry, and worships it with 
the most becoming devotion. But if the saint is un- 
grateful, the Brazilian knows how to be ungrateful, 
too. If he or any one of his family afflicted with 
disease does not speedily recover, or if his specula- 
tions have an unprofitable aspect, he will pray the 
good saint with all earnestness to turn the tide of evil ; 
he will pray up to a certain point — the very point 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



of despair. Then comes a revulsion. Prayers are 
now exchanged for curses, and genuflections for 
square-toed kicks. Thus, literally, is the saint pun- 
ished for his obduracy. 

St. Antonio is the most general saint of the coun- 
try. He has more people called by his name than 
any other ; consequently his image is more com- 
monly to be seen in their houses and shops. These 
images fare well or ill according to the health and 
prosperity of their owners. As trouble in this world 
is supposed to be more than a balance for joy. 
the St. Antonios upon an average have rather a 
hard lot. A very common punishment meted out to 
the saint is to strip him of his dress and ornaments, 
and then to sink him in the well. If the sick person 
recovers, or the speculation takes a favorable turn, the 
saint is pulled up, has a new suit of clothes, and finer 
jewels than before, with plenty of apologies for his 
bad treatment; and penances are undergone therefor. 
If otherwise, — if the sick man dies, or the money is 
lost, — then the saint remains in the well, and is very 
liable to have his head smashed with a big stone. 

The church in Brazil, holding firmly to all the 
original superstitions of Rome, has allowed much of 
the African element to mingle with religion, as the 
people have mixed it with their blood. It adapts 
itself to the ignorance and weak intellects of the 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



167 



blacks, and allows them to practise charms and rites 
of Fetish worship, which are quite as innocent in their 
way as are many of the genuine old ceremonies and 
dogmas. The negroes are permitted to worship black 
Virgins, as being more to their taste. 

There is a favorite and very pretty white image in 
the Church of the Gloria. She has performed many 
astonishing miracles, and pilgrimages are made to her 
shrine from distant parts of the empire. She was a 
patroness of the mother of the present emperor. 
Many times did the empress visit her, to be healed of 
her diseases, and the Virgin was very considerate, pay- 
ing attention to her most trifling ailments. At last a 
serious illness seized upon the empress, so that she 
was too ill to visit the temple. A council was held 
by the clergy, to determine upon the propriety of 
inviting the Virgin to leave the church and visit the 
palace. After much debate, it was decided, that, for 
the sake of royalty, the innovation might be permitted. 
Accordingly, with all delicate attention, as well as 
with all pomp and ceremony, the removal was accom- 
plished, and the Virgin returned the many calls of 
the empress. But mark how fearfully she resented the 
insult thus offered to her dignity. The empress died ! 

Certainly, in one sense of the term, the Brazilians 
may be called a religious people. Yet it can hardly 
be supposed that the better educated classes believe in 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



the efficacy of all this mummery. Most of these may 
be said to be infidels at heart, while they are super- 
stitious in conscience. As children, they, like all 
children, are believers ; and though in mature years 
they sometimes go to the opposite extreme, the im- 
pressions of childhood are seldom entirely effaced. 
Thus the Brazilian through life practises the forms of 
his early faith, entertaining the possibility of their 
efficacy, and seeking consolation from them in the 
hour of death. The selfishness of their religion is 
exemplified ridiculously in their prayers for deliver- 
ance when in trouble. In such cases, in order to be 
sure of help from some quarter, the Brazilian ad- 
dresses himself to the sources both of good and of evil. 
In a storm at sea, or when passing over a dangerous 
bridge, he constantly cries, " Good God, good devil ! 
Good devil, good God ! " besides invoking the aid of 
any saints who may occur to his recollection. When 
all is safe again, he is very forgetful of his deliverers ; 
and well he may be, as the debt to them all would be 
too large for him to pay. 

Occasionally, however, his sore distress wrings from 
him a vow. True, when the danger has passed, he 
regrets his rashness ; but his superstition makes him 
honest in its performance. A few years ago, the cap- 
tain and crew of a brig promised the Virgin that, if 
she would keep their mainsail from being blown away, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



169 



they would present it at her shrine on arrival at Rio 
de Janeiro. The Virgin having kindly complied, the 
sail was unbent from the yard and lugged by these 
devotees through the streets of the city to the door of 
the chapel. But the Virgin having no particular use 
for a brig's mainsail, an arrangement in the way of 
commutation was made between the captain and the 
priests. The sail was redeemed for a moderate sum 
of milreas, and was returned to the brig, where it was 
more useful than it would have been in a church. 
Many shrines are ornamented with curious memorials 
of gratitude for recovery from sickness, and for preser- 
vation from accidents, attributable to the special inter- 
position of particular Virgins. There are very many 
funny and disproportioned pictures of beds and their 
occupants, of capsizing boats and of runaway horses, 
occasioning people to be spilled upon the water and 
upon the ground. Legs, arms, and skulls have been 
broken ; but they have been mended by the Virgin — 
with the aid of a surgeon. Accordingly, fac-si miles of 
these various parts of the body, done in plaster and in 
clay, are among the chapel ornaments. Under each 
is a highly descriptive picture, and there is frequently 
a detailed account of the perilous circumstances in 
which the individual was placed, and from which he 
was miraculously rescued. The perusal of these 
pious inscriptions was often a source of great enter- 
tainment. 



170 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Religion as an Amusement. , — Habits of Brazilian Ladies. — 
Female Education. — Women in Low Estimation. — A 
Comical Mistake. — The Steward's Blunder. — No Fish 
on Friday. — A Good-natured Bishop. — Light Penance. 
— Professors and Students. — Source of Brazilian Vice. — 
Theatricals in Rio de Janeiro. 



'HERE is still another view to be taken of reli- 



JL gion in Brazil — its use as an amusement. Rio 
de Janeiro would be the dullest city on earth without 
it. The men in their mournful black clothes, which 
they so much affect, would grope about their business 
in the daytime and retire to their dens at night, and 
the women would merely walk from their beds to 
their windows and from their windows to their beds. 
But religion comes as a relief to such monotony. The 
many chimes of the bells give notice that some solemn 
farce is being enacted every day, and the frequent 
holidays and festas bring out the whole population into 
the squares and the churches. Processions are as 
popular and as common as with us on the eve of a 
presidential election. In them may often be seen little 




TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 171 

children dressed as angels ; and very pretty, thougr 
somewhat dusky, are these tiny sprites, as they dance 
airily along. 

It is only upon feast days that the ladies show them- 
selves much abroad. Sometimes they are seen in the 
cool of the evening, enjoying the universal feminine 
luxury of shopping; but they are generally little in- 
clined to leave their homes and their windows. It is 
a common practice to send to the shops for such arti- 
cles as may be needed, that they may make their 
selection without the trouble of leaving their houses. 1 
Although laziness originated this custom, it has the 
merit of economy, induced by freedom from tempta- 
tion/ The Brazilian ladies spend most of their time 
in leaning upon their elbows, gazing listlessly into the 
streets, or exhibiting themselves coquettishly within 
the half-closed blinds, tantalizing those who pass. 
Mirrors are often ingeniously placed at the sides of 
the windows, so that the old and the ugly can see 
without being seen. The young and the pretty do not 
so much resort to this device. 

More attention is now paid to female education than 
formerly ; yet there is room for a great advance in this 
respect. At present, even the better classes are 
generally proficient only in music and in dancing. 
Perhaps their taste for music is in a great degree 
attributable to the African element, and the graceful 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

voluptuousness of their postures in the dance may be 
owing to the same cause. The consequences of such 
general ignorance among them are either a charming 
simplicity of manner, or an extreme of vice such as 
may be incredible. 

The Brazilian women are almost universally re- 
garded as playthings, and as the means of sensual en- 
joyment. They advance the fortunes of their parents 
by being sold in the matrimonial market when they 
should be at school. Differences of thirty 7 or forty 
years between husbands and wives are not uncom- 
mon. Fidelity is promised at the altar as a matter of 
form, but its observance is scarcely expected. The 
husband is allowed carte blanche, or, better to express 
it in an allowable pun, carte noire, in these matters. 
At the same time he is very jealous of his wife, as he 
richly deserves to have reason to be. 

On our first acquaintance with the business of 
carrying passengers upon the coast, there were some 
ludicrous mistakes. I once incurred the violent anger 
of an old army officer, who, with his family, had 
been among our passengers, by inquiring after the 
health of his wife. Thus we learned that what is 
considered ordinary politeness in the United States is 
excessive rudeness in Brazil. At another time we 
left Santos with a large number of passengers on 
board. Among them was a gentleman of about sixty 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



173 



years of age, accompanied by two little girls — one of 
them thirteen years old, and the other two or three 
years younger. When the sea became somewhat 
rough, the gentleman retired to his cabin, under the 
influence of sea-sickness, leaving the children upon 
deck. Devoting myself to their amusement, I took 
them upon my knees and told them stories about home, 
with my thoughts wandering there, as I played with 
their silken tresses and enjoyed their pretty smiles. 
In the midst of this pleasant occupation the gentle- 
man came upon deck. With an expression of face 
which I at first attributed to the fiend of sea-sickness, 
he gazed upon us for a moment, and then inquired, 
in a singularly harsh voice, " Captain, are you mar- 
ried?" " Yes, indeed, senhor," I replied, "and have 
a daughter two or three years older than your eldest 
little girl, here. She reminds me of her very much," 
I added, as I patted the lovely child upon the cheek. 
" That little girl, sir ! " exclaimed my indignant passen- 
ger, with a severe emphasis on little girl, " that little 
girl is my wife ! " I immediately provided a chair for 
the gentleman's wife and another for her sister. Soon 
afterwards the party went below, and the steward 
reported that there was a great noise in their cabin. 

That steward, by the bye, was an excellent fellow ; 
but his negligence on one occasion might have caused 
us serious trouble, had not the easy conscience of an 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



ecclesiastic befriended us. We happened to sail on 
Friday, and the steward had forgotten the day of 
the week. It was particularly unfortunate, as it oc- 
curred in the season of Lent. Descending to dinner, 
it was found that his otherwise well-spread table 
lacked the great essential, fish, which, variously served, 
should have been the basis of everything. To add to 
my mortification, a bishop was on board, occupying 
the chair at my right. There was no remedy but an 
honest confession and a cry of fteccavi, coupled with a 
malediction upon the unlucky steward, who, a Catholic 
himself, stood trembling under the enormity of his 
offence. The bishop assumed a serious air ; but, after 
a moment's reflection, his face beamed joyously as he 
exclaimed, " Then I must give indulgence to myself 
and to all the passengers ; but you will suffer for it by 
and bye. But stop ! " he added. " You may as 
well suffer now. I will inflict penance upon you. 
Give u§ all champagne ! " The penance was per- 
formed with alacrity, and this proved one of the jol- 
liest dinners ever discussed on board the " Tejuca." 

As our route was that of direct communication 
between the capital and the city of San Paulo, where 
the great literary institutions of the empire are lo- 
cated, the professors and students of the college were 
frequently going and returning with us. The latter 
were from the elite of Brazilian families, and were a 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 1 75 

jolly, rollicking set of fellows, yet gentlemanly in 
their manners, and evidently well taught, many of 
them being proficients in the classics and in mathe- 
matics. Most of the secular students knew little, and 
cared less, about religion ; whereas the young men 
intended for the church were trained to their calling 
so entirely, that they were ignorant of all else beyond 
ecclesiastical observances and the monk Latin of the 
Breviary. On being reproached by one of his fellow- 
passengers for their general ignorance of what does 
not immediately concern religion, a priest told us a 
story which conveyed a fair retort. There is a town 
in the interior called Belem, or Bethlehem. The di- 
vinity student said that he had found one of the best 
mathematicians in San Paulo so ignorant of religion 
that he was obliged to inform him where our Savior 
was born. " Ah," said the youth who lived in a 
polygon, — " ah, yes, I supposed he was a Brazilian ! " 

The clerical students are frequently of questionable 
morality, and not unfrequently of unquestionable im- 
morality. It may be said, in extenuation of their most 
common vice, that it is hard for any system of 
religion to hold men in restraint when it is opposed 
by human nature in a tropical climate. Chastity in 
New England is not so high a virtue as it would be 
in Brazil, if it existed here, which it certainly does 
not, to any considerable extent, in men or women, or 



176 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



children who can walk. A clergyman once came on 
board accompanied by his son, and the old gentleman 
seemed to be as highly respected as if he had denied 
the relationship. 

It would be unjust to attribute such delinquencies 
to the Catholic religion, when we know that they 
are not uncommon among Protestants in our own 
land. The vices and supineness of the Brazilians do 
not emanate from their religion, which, with all its 
faults, is the best they can have. Without it, as I have 
endeavored to show, there would be anarchy. He 
must be a careless observer of society who does not 
see that its pest in Brazil is amalgamation — the mix- 
ing of two bloods which the Almighty never intended 
to course in one current. 

Actors and actresses, all over the world, are often 
regarded as of doubtful reputation. Certainly in our 
country this imputation is most unjust. But in Brazil 
an actress who is not a prostitute would be shunned, 
as unfit for the boards of the theatres. It seems 
strange that the city of Rio de Janeiro, containing 
more than four hundred thousand inhabitants, cannot 
support one respectable theatre or opera-house. I 
use the word respectable in reference to size as 
well as to morality. There are the large theatre of 
Pedro II. and the Italian opera-house, both of which 
the government endeavored to encourage. But 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



177 



neither a correct dramatic taste nor a love for the 
perfection of music in acting existed. Both these 
houses are large, commodious, and well ventilated, but 
they are closed for want of patronage. The crowd 
throng to two stifling little dens called the Alcazar 
and the El Dorado, where a company of strumpets 
exhibit themselves nightly for the public entertain- 
ment. 

Every people must have something to quarrel about, 
some parties to uphold, either religious, political, or — 
something else. The inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro 
do not trouble themselves about high and low church, 
abolition, temperance, or women's rights. It would 
be amusing to hear any one advocate these two last 
Boston notions in Brazil ! But there are the great 
Aimee and Lovato parties. The young ladies who 
bear these names are rival actresses, both beautiful, 
both sweet singers and agile dancers, and each pos 
sessing a multitude of lovers. Every play-goer be- 
longs to the party either of Aimee or of Lovato. As 
they both appear together on the boards of the Alca- 
zar, the rival shouts of, " Bravo, Aimee ! " " Bravo, 
Lovato ! " frequently interrupt the performance with 
their noisy clamor. The favorites are fired at with 
volleys of bouquets, till the stage becomes a perfect 
flower garden. Then the young ladies, with a view 
to economy, collect the offerings, smile sweetly upon 



178 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

their admirers, and pass the flowers out from the side 
door, whence they are carried to the front and sold 
again. Whole columns of the morning papers are 
filled with praises in prose and in verse, as well as 
with abusive criticisms of these actresses. The rep- 
resentation of the previous night is the topic of con- 
versation on the next day, and gives rise to many 
loud words and awful threats, which never amount 
to much, for the Brazilians always stop short of blows 
and duels. 

Besides these little play-houses, where the pieces are 
always French, there is a small Portuguese theatre, 
which the emperor sometimes, though rarely, at- 
tends. Such is the staple of theatrical entertainment 
for this great city. Religion as truly takes its place 
in Brazil with gaudy shows and imposing ceremo- 
nies, as it serves the same purpose, in many large 
New England towns, with class meetings and evening 
lectures. 



i79 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Perso?ial Observations. — Writers on Brazil. — Eivbank, 
Fletcher, Agassiz. — Inducements to settle there. — South- 
ern Coasting Trade. — Unsuccessful Attempt to Re- open 
it. — Sale of Steamer Tejuca, and Return- Home. — South- 
em Colonists in Brazil. — Drai?i of Men a?id Money by the 
TVar. — Dangers to floiv therefrom. — A Word of Cau- 
tion. 

I HAVE endeavored, as much as possible, to com- 
press these observations into a small compass, 
and at the same time to give the reader a general idea 
of the nature of the country, and of the pursuits and 
character of its people, in most respects so different 
from our own. It would be unjust to the Brazilians 
to pretend that an acquaintance with a comparatively 
small part of their vast empire can enable any one to 
form a correct opinion of the whole. No one, who 
has written upon the subject as yet, has travelled over 
its length and breadth. Ewbank was the best obser- 
ver, and a most graphic delineator ; but his researches 
scarcely extended beyond the city of Rio de Janeiro. 
Mr. Fletcher has certainly produced the largest book. 



l8o TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

In a few months Professor Agassiz and his accom- 
plished wife will gratify the public with an account 
of their extensive explorations. Their work will be 
welcomed by the scientific, and by all who can appre- 
ciate unsurpassed descriptive talents. 

Those who have read Mr. Fletcher's book will not 
fail to notice that either his prejudices or my own in- 
cline us to take different views. It will be remem- 
bered, however, that my observations are confined to 
particular localities, and the inferences of general 
character are chiefly drawn from what was seen at 
the capital, and within a few hundred miles of it. 
My business was neither that of a tract distributor, 
such as Mr. Fletcher's, nor one of scientific research, 
like that of Professor Agassiz, nor of colonization, 
for which purpose Rev. Mr. Dunn has made his ex- 
ploration. I had no occasion to flatter the emperor 
or his people ; nor could my position or merits 
deserve any notice from them, such as was due to 
Professor Agassiz, of whom, in passing, I cannot 
forbear to relate an anecdote which he may forget to 
chronicle. When the emperor was about leaving foi 
the Rio de la Plata, at a very critical period of the 
war, in order to encourage the army by his presence, 
the professor addressed him a note, conveying his best 
wishes for his success and speedy return, adding, in a 
postscript, " If you have time while there, don't for- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. l8l 

get to bring back some specimens of fish from that 
river." Dom Pedro complied, and the emperor's fish 
are probably in the Museum at Cambridge. 

If any value is attached to this little work beyond 
affording an hour's amusement, it is that of conveying 
some idea of the commercial character of Southern 
Brazil, and of the inducements offered to Americans to 
enter upon its coasting trade or to settle in the country* 
I have not dealt in statistics, as such are uninteresting 
to most readers. In wading through Mr. Fletcher's 
book, these may be found here and there ; but the best 
compendium is a little volume written by Mr. Scully, 
editor of the " Anglo-Brazilian Times," published in 
Rio de Janeiro. It contains the most accurate infor- 
mation upon those points. 

Ah American company is now being formed for the 
Brazilian coasting trade. A mail contract is guaran- 
teed to it, and large hopes of its success are enter- 
tained by those who are interested in it. There are 
some towns south of Santos which make large figures 
upon the map ; such as Canonea, Iguape, and Parana- 
gua. The new American line is to take the place 
of a former subsidized line of Brazilian boats, once 
running to these ports. That was discontinued for 
want of patronage, and the company made a com- 
plete failure. 

Several months had elapsed, during which there had 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



been no steam communication with those towns, and 
the newspapers were continually publishing letters 
purporting to come from their people, urging govern- 
ment or private individuals to put steamers again 
upon the route. I accordingly advertised my steamer, 
and sent notices to all the ports on the coast, long in 
advance of sailing. We made three trips, being de- 
termined to open the trade again if possible. The 
attempt was abortive, for there was not freight enough 
in all these voyages to pay for the coal consumed on 
one of them. The towns are all wretched little vil- 
lages, and offer no inducements or conveniences for 
commerce. We found the people entirely indifferent 
to commercial enterprise. They were glad to see 
a steamer, as they preferred her to a sailing vessel, 
because of greater speed and better accommodations ; 
but they argued that they required no steamers for 
cargo. They owned a number of small brigs and 
schooners, which they were accustomed to despatch 
to Rio de Janeiro with rice, and to Buenos Ayres 
with mate (the native tea). On arrival there, the car- 
go is peddled out from on board. They consider the 
saving of storage and of trans-shipment as more than 
an equivalent for despatch. On their return the same 
little craft bring whatever cargo is offered, the time 
occupied being a matter of supreme indifference. 
Despairing, therefore, of success under such cir- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



cumstances, I sailed for Montevideo in September 
1 866, and sold the Tejuca there. 

Returning to the United States, we learn that a 
greater number of emigrants from the South than we 
had supposed, have lately gone to Brazil. The Rev. 
Mr. Dunn, a secessionist ex-clergyman, is at the head 
of the chief American colony. This is on the Ribeira 
River, a stream which enters the ocean near Iguape. 
It is navigable for light draught steamers, and if the 
representations of the reverend gentleman, who came 
up with us on one of our return voyages, can be relied 
upon, there are offered great inducements for settle- 
ment in that vicinity. Cotton, rice, and corn flourish 
abundantly, and all that is wanted is protection of 
property by government and systematic labor. At 
present, jealousy of foreigners makes a residence there 
too exciting to be pleasant, and labor is scarce and 
uncertain. It is the avowed determination of the 
reverend head of this colony, that his people shall 
keep themselves separate from Northerners. If any 
such should show themselves upon the Ribeira, they 
may expect to be driven away, as the Quakers were 
once ousted from the sacred soil of New England. 

I have already called attention to the progress 
which Brazil has made in the cultivation of cotton. 
The labor question, however, is as great a difficulty 
there as it is in the United States. It is true that sla- 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



very still exists in Brazil, giving the native planters a 
great advantage. But this is partly balanced by their 
lack of skill and energy. A few southern gentlemen, 
who have emigrated with money in their pockets, 
have bought negroes, and already have large planta- 
tions in successful operation. But the majority of the 
emigrants are too lazy to work, and too proud to beg 
for any thing but a passage home. 

Soon the pressure of the abolition party in Brazil, 
aided by the influence of England and the United 
States, will terminate slavery altogether. The shock 
upon society will not be so great there as it has been 
here, and the absence of distinctions of color will aid 
in incorporating the blacks into the body politic. 
Abolition will not cause the ultimate extinction of 
the inferior race, but the whole agglomerated mass of 
mulatto humanity will live together or die together, 
as the future may determine. 

Labor in Brazil is becoming still more difficult to 
be procured, as the country is depopulated by the 
hopeless Paraguayan war. This war never would 
have been undertaken, had the cost been counted ; 
but it is now persevered in through the necessity of 
maintaining the national honor. It is already telling 
severely upon the vitality of the empire, and is fast 
exhausting its financial resources. It was popular 
in the outset, when the conquest of Paraguay was 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 1 85 

thought an easy matter. There were some early 
kindlings of genuine patriotism, and the courage of 
the Brazilian youth showed itself inferior to none. 
But gradually, as the magnitude of the undertaking 
became apparent, and the stubbornness of the foe 
was experienced, the fire and enthusiasm died out. 
Recruiting for each succeeding campaign became 
more difficult. The levies are now forced, and the 
living material of war is becoming more worthless, as 
well as more scarce. The fishermen and the poor- 
er classes of the seaport towns hide themselves in 
the mountains to escape impressment. The motley 
crowd of yellow and black vagabonds sent to become 
food for the Paraguayans' powder, or for the malaria 
of their marshes, excites more contempt than fear. 

It may be fairly estimated that less than one half 
the money expended is for legitimate purposes ; the 
larger part of it going to enrich speculators and pol- 
iticians. As we are now paying the interest upon a 
debt contracted in a somewhat similar manner, we 
may sympathize with the Brazilians, who are less 
able to .afford such luxuries. Heretofore the ex- 
penses of the government have been met principally 
by the custom-house receipts, all other imposts hav- 
ing been very light. When an internal revenue tax 
shall be levied upon the mass of the people, there is 
serious reason to apprehend that its enforcement, 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



added to other disturbing causes already at work, will 
bring the government and the constitution into dan- 
ger. It may be well for those who fear a similar 
catastrophe at home to reflect upon this, in consider- 
ing the advantages and disadvantages of emigration 
to Brazil. 



NOTE. 

The towns of Iguape, Canonea, and Paranagua, which have 
been mentioned in this chapter, were founded by the Jesuits, 
who established themselves in Brazil soon after its discovery. 
The chief evidences of their existence at the present day are 
the ruins of old churches and monasteries built by these 
zealous missionaries. 



187 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Abolition of Slavery in Brazil. — Free Labor a id JFree- 
Trade for all the World. — The Slave Trade Twenty 
Tears ago. — England's Disinterestedness. — The Necessity 
of obtaining Laborers from Africa. 

REFERENCE has been made in the preceding 
chapter and elsewhere to the system of labor 
in Brazil. A further consideration of it is naturally 
suggested by the news just received. While the last 
pages were in press, we have learned that a project 
has been nearly matured for the abolition of slavery 
in thirty-three years from this time, and that all 
children born after the proclamation shall be free. 
The desired end will thus be reached in such a 
manner that the community will be better prepared 
for it than were the people of our southern states, 
and consequently such suffering as has fallen upon 
whites and blacks with us will be avoided. Un- 
doubtedly this action of the Brazilian government 
has been incited by England and the United States. 
These countries have now only to bring the same 
influence to bear upon Spain, and then, be it 



1 88 TEN^ MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

advantageous or not to the colonies affected by it, all 
nations will be on an equality as regards labor, and 
the white man everywhere, as well as the black man, 
will have " a fair chance" in this respect. When the 
slavery of tariffs and the tyranny of protection are 
abolished, another weight will be lifted from the back 
of free labor. Then it will arise in all its dignity, and 
wherever, on the face of the earth, intellect can nerve 
the arm, there will its force and superiority be of right 
acknowledged. 

As the period of manumission in Brazil is so far 
distant, the present cost of labor and production in 
that country will not be affected by it ; so that what 
has been said upon these points needs no revision. 
Even if emancipation had been immediate, it will be 
seen that other causes would give Brazil an advantage 
over the United States in the cultivation of cotton. 
But as slavery is to endure for so many years longer, 
whatever economy there is in it is to be added to 
these. If, in years past, Brazil had been left to her- 
self, she would doubtless have continued the importa- 
tion of slaves in such numbers that, however much it 
might have cheapened the cost of her productions, it 
would unquestionably have resulted in the extermina- 
tion of the whites. 

It may be excusable, in this connection, to introduce 
a view of slavery taken twenty years ago, at a time 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



when no hopes were entertained of its speedy death, 
either in a natural or in a violent manner. There 
have always been various plans of philanthropy afloat 
in the w r orld. If this one was somewhat erratic, it 
was at least sincere. " The greatest good of the great- 
est number" is sound republican doctrine; and to 
those who regard all races as included in the enumer- 
ation, this plan ought not to seem very objectionable. 
Certain philosophers, however, who pretend to admit 
that theory, have taken a very different course of 
action from such a one as its natural inferences would 
suggest. They seem to have considered that the 
best way to^civilize the negro and to promote his hap- 
piness on this continent was speedily to annihilate his 
race, even if this desirable result could only be ob- 
tained by sacrificing half a million of white men. 
This costly offering, we all know, was made for the 
preservation of the Union ; but there are those ghouls 
among us who felicitate themselves that it was for the 
realization of their one idea. 

On my first voyage to Brazil, in the year 1847, tne 
following letter formed a part of my correspondence 
with the " Boston Journal." The slave trade was, at 
that time, carried on in such a barbarous and revolting 
manner that any suggestions for its amelioration, even 
to legalizing it, did not seem inappropriate. In those 
days many of us distrusted the sincerity of England ; 



190 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



and this feeling is not yet entirely eradicated from all 
minds. It was thought that the British government, 
having been compelled by the persistent efforts of 
Wilberforce and his associates to abolish slavery in its 
own possessions, was urging the same course upon 
other nations upon the principle of the fox that had 
lost his tail. The sudden change of sentiment, when 
lately her own interests were involved, which induced 
her to take the part of that section of our country 
where slavery existed, fully justifies the opinion of her 
time-serving duplicity which we then entertained. 

It may be remarked that, when this letter was writ- 
ten, the author indulged the idea that the African was 
capable of self-government, and that he might perhaps 
become in all respects the equal of the white man. A 
further acquaintance with the race at home and in 
Brazil, in the West Indies and in various parts of 
their native Africa, has considerably modified this 
opinion. 

" Rio de Janeiro, January, 1847. 

" The chief misery of the slaves, after leaving Africa, 
consists in their treatment during the voyage. Once 
safely landed, who will suppose for a moment that 
they are as unhappy here as at home, where they are 
born slaves, and made the tools of their savage masters 
to fight their battles, and offered up by hundreds at a 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. I9I 

time to grace the ceremonies of a feast, or self-sacrificed 
on the altars of their own abominable Fetish rites ? 

" So long as the tide of emigration flows from 
Northern Europe to the United States (and thither it 
will continue to flow for many years to come), Europe 
will not attempt to colonize distant Brazil ; but Africa 
will do it, and is already doing so, notwithstanding all 
England's hollow-hearted and hypocritical interfer- 
ence. The doctrine I am about to advocate may seem 
strange to many readers ; but wait before you condemn 
it. For the sake of humanity, and of eventually civil- 
izing Africa, rendering its people happy, and spread- 
ing Christian truth among them, take off every restric- 
tion upon the slave trade between Africa and Brazil , 
for the obstacles thrown in its way render the suffer- 
ings of the negroes tenfold greater than if the trade 
were free. The number annually imported now can- 
not be ascertained ; but I know that while we were in 
Rio (thirty days), four thousand were landed in its 
immediate vicinity from five small vessels. We are 
not informed how many were landed on other parts of 
this extensive coast in the same time. It is scarcely 
possible to conceive that one of these vessels of two 
hundred tons could have *brought one thousand and 
rive negroes safely, having had on board, probably, 
on leaving the coast, about twelve hundred, twenty 
per cent, being the usual allowance given to death. 



192 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



Who can imagine anything more horrible than their 
situation for thirty days, while crossing on the warm- 
est latitudes of the earth, stowed with the nicest cal- 
culations of a stevedore in that vessel's hold, living 
and dying packed together ! 

u The slavers are now so closely watched on the 
African coast that an owner makes his calculations to 
lose one vessel out of three ; and if necessity demands 
it, no hesitation is made in throwing overboard cargo 
to escape detection ! The consequence is, that the 
only requisite quality in a vessel is her sailing, old 
ones being generally used in the trade, as subjecting 
to less loss when captured. England has the credit 
of doing a great deal to stop the trade, from the cir- 
cumstance that her vessels so strictly watch the slavers. 
Well, so they do ; and we see the consequences. But 
does she this from motives of humanity? Her people 
think so, and so do some of ours. Let us see. She 
has now a want of laborers in her colonies. She has 
abolished the slave trade. Where, then, shall she get 
her slaves, or (if you like a softer name) her appren- 
tices? By robbing the Brazilian who has paid fol 
them, and stealing his vessel, and sending these ne- 
groes, with their native land in sight, to be appren- 
ticed in the West India Islands. I have been in St. 
Helena, an island but a few days' sail from the Afri- 
can coast, where five thousand negroes, taken from 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



'93 



Portuguese slavers (which were broken up or used for 
the British navy), were waiting for English vessels to 
come and take them away to English colonies — 
apprentices ! This hypocritical system of slavery is less 
defensible than its open practice. These 'apprentices' 
are necessarily life-long slaves, for the time never hap- 
pens to come when, to use a nautical expression, they 
have c worked out their dead horse.' They go on 
from year to year increasing their indebtedness to those 
who are really, if not nominally, their owners, and only 
find freedom in death. 

'Tt is to be hoped that England will yet see her own 
interest in doing away with this abominable traffic. 
She will then, with a somewhat better claim to speak, 
be enabled to lecture Americans upon their c great 
national sin.' Even then, it will be well for her to re- 
member that she introduced slavery amongst us against 
our wishes, and refused, when earnestly solicited by the 
colonists, to discontinue the traffic. 

" I have said that Brazil is destined to be colonized 
by Africa, and I think that Brazilians of intelligence 
themselves are aware of it. Their country will yet be 
peopled and governed by blacks. Then we can intro- 
duce arts, science, and religion among them on this 
healthy continent, while death will always be, as it 
has ever been, the doom of the white man who at- 
tempts to settle in Africa. When this is accomplish^ 

*3 



i 9 4 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



the inhabitants will have a commerce of their own 
with the opposite coast ; and commerce carries civili- 
zation with it wherever it goes. First enlightened here, 
its influence will be felt across the South Atlantic ; 
and that land, impenetrable by us, will have its dark- 
ness scattered by the sun of righteousness, and its 
deserts will blossom as the rose. And this will be 
more speedily accomplished if the Brazilian slave 
trade is freely allowed. 

" By the laws of Brazil, every slave may purchase 
his freedom at a fairly appraised value, and the mas- 
ters are obliged to accept the price. Many negroes 
hire their own time, being still fed and clothed by 
their owners, leaving, over and above what they pay 
them, one half to three quarters of a dollar per diem 
for themselves. Thus, in two or three years, they 
can, and frequently do, become free. 

" Now, open the trade. It will be then thrown into 
the hands of others besides the few capitalists, who 
only can now afford to run the vessels ; the trade being 
made legal, suitable regulations can be enforced, as 
with our emigrant ships, in regard to tonnage, water, 
and accommodations. Ship-owners will be satisfied 
with moderate profits, and the value of negroes will 
come down to so small a sum that the slaves can pur- 
chase their freedom sooner than England's stolen ap- 
fre?itit es can work out theirs. The slave trade will 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



195 



be the same, from competition, as emigration now is 
from the Azores and Cape de Verds to Brazil, vessels 
frequently arriving from those islands with passengers, 
who are sold by the captains into slavery (or any 
other equivalent term you may substitute) to work 
until they have earned a sufficient amount to pay then- 
passages. They are content, for they are soon free, 
and happier than they were at home ; and what hard- 
ships have they there to complain of, compared with 
the African in his miserable home ! 

" Could suitable means be thus devised for the 
negro's emigration, and had they knowledge of how 
much better their condition would be here, would 
they not gladly flock to Brazil upon the same terms as 
these less wretched islanders ? " 

Now, I do not any longer believe in such a grand 
missionary programme as this, but I do believe that 
Brazil cannot be supplied with labor unless there 
shall be a species of coolie trade between that countrv 
and Africa, which in many respects will not differ 
from the plan proposed. It is with great diffidence, 
and with a consciousness of its little weight, that I 
record an opinion opposed to that of my learned and 
scientific friend, Professor Agassiz, who thinks that 
Brazil is a country adapted to white labor. I do not 



196 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



believe that this is true, to a considerable extent, in 
regard to any country within the tropics. 

In the British East Indian possessions there can 
scarcely be found a descendant of the third generation 
of pure English blood ; and in those regions a white 
man never exposes himself to the rays of the sun 
unless protected by an umbrella — an inconvenient 
encumbrance when occupied with the shovel and the 
hoe. Everywhere, in hot climates, Europeans become 
enervated and unfit for toil. Brazil will scarcely 
form an exception to other countries of the same lati- 
tudes. 

In the more southern provinces, and on the higher 
levels, white colonization may succeed ; at least, if 
there is nothing but climatic difficulties to oppose it. 
Notwithstanding that an unexpected number have 
emigrated from our southern states, it is not to be sup- 
posed that many more will follow their example, now 
that they will find labor so difficult to be obtained. 
There is an immense area of land on this northern 
continent sufficient to attract our attention, and that 
of all Europe, before it is time to pour an overplus 
into South America. Black labor from the nearest 
market is therefore a necessity for Brazil, even if the 
result of its importation should eventually be a black 
empire. 

There is a race of negroes from Minas, a territory 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 1 97 

on the west coast of Africa, differing from all other 
blacks. They are of immense frames, and capable 
of great endurance. The women are finely formed, 
and by the Brazilians are considered beautiful and 
charming. Both males and females display a re- 
markable degree of intelligence. They are very clan- 
nish, speaking a language among themselves, unintel- 
ligible to others, and practising- the rites of their 
Mohammedan faith from one generation to another, 
unallured by the tempting ceremonies of the Catholic 
church. As slaves, they are valued at more than 
double the price of other negroes ; and as freemen, 
they are useful citizens, for they will work of their 
own accord as no other blacks will do, with regard to 
the future. These "Minas" frequently purchase their 
freedom, and return to Africa, often coming back 
again to Brazil. They sometimes charter vessels for 
this purpose, after the manner already described of 
the Western Islanders, who, without having been 
slaves, have worked out the temporary servitude into 
which they are sold by the Portuguese captains. 

Therefore, as the want of labor is more and more 
felt, it will not be surprising if emigration companies 
are organized for the purpose of bringing cargoes of 
these people from Africa to Brazil, as Irishmen and 
Germans are brought from Europe to America, in 
comfortable steamers, at a small expense. Although, 



1 98 TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 

if due precautions should not be taken, they might, 
like Chinese coolies, be sometimes bought, or " Shang- 
haied," still there would be a great improvement upon 
the old system of the slave trade. The Brazilian 
government offers no objection to the modified traffic 
in white men as carried on by the Portuguese ships, 
which are continually bringing emigrants from the 
Azores. It would certainly be impolitic to oppose it ; 
for these islanders are the most available and useful 
white laborers to be obtained, and they are of real 
service to the country ; but the supply from this source 
is necessarily limited. There must inevitably come a 
more pressing demand for immigration. The Para- 
guayan war has robbed the country of its best free 
labor, and thousands of slaves have been manumitted 
to become victims for the same sacrifice. 

But peace will eventually come ; and then Brazil 
will need all the supplies she can obtain for her re- 
cuperation ; then, with the permission of England, 
whose influence is still supreme, she may be allowed 
to import apprentices, coolies, emigrants, — call them 
by what name you will, — laborers, at any rate, from 
Africa, or, more probably, from China. 



i 9 9 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Plan of Emancipation. — Kindly Relations bet-ween Masters 
and Slaves, — Intercession and Forgiveness. — Future 
Welfare of tJie Freedmeii considered. — Du C/iaillu's Es- 
timate of the Negro Race. — Conclusion. 

THE following extract from the " Diario " (offi- 
cial organ published in Rio de Janeiro) of 
April 9, 1867, furnishes some details of the plan of 
emancipation. 

"There is no imprudence in revealing to the public all the 
facts we have learned on the subject. Our determination is 
to enlighten the people as to the events with which they ought 
to be familiar, and not to imitate the sad example furnished 
us by some who remain silent upon the most important is- 
sues of the day. 

" In our opinion the project which is to form the ground- 
work of future parliamentary discussion is now elaborated. 
Already is a step made which honors the intentions of the 
government, and will cause the country to be the object of 
the attention and sympathy of the world. The plan to which 
we allude has thus far been canvassed to some extent in the 
Council of State, where it was indorsed by an almost unani- 
mous decision. 

" The following, as far as we have been able to ascertain, 
are the bases of the plan : — 

"First. — Slavery shall cease totally in the year 1900, that 
is, in thirt 7-three years hence. 

"Second. — The state shall indemnify those citizens who 
may still own slaves at that period. 



200 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



" Third. — From the date of the promulgation of this de- 
cree, all children born to slaves shall be free. 

" Fourth. — Those children who may be educated in the 
houses of their parents' masters shall serve them till they 
reach their twentieth year, and will then be restored to 
freedom. 

" Fifth. — There will be established courts of emancipation in 
all the towns to enforce the law and see to its proper execution. 

" Sixth. — A fixed amount will be set aside for the emanci- 
pation of the slaves of the nation, and the same terms will be 
agreed upon to effect the liberation of the slaves owned by 
religious orders as may be made to purchase the freedom of 
those held by the government. 

'-'-Seventh. — There will be appropriated a fund for the 
annual purchase of a certain number of slaves, so that but 
few may be in bondage when the hour of general emancipa- 
tion is at hand. 

" Such are the features of the plan, and after due considera- 
tion we can promise its originators the esteem of humanity 
and the gratitude of the country. 

" The opinion of the Brazilian people on the subject of 
slavery is already known. All detest the institution in its 
principle. Such demonstrations as have come to our knowl- 
edge prove that all our citizens are in favor of the spirit of the 
plan developed in the foregoing summary. It is looked upon 
as a skilful and patriotic solution of the great problem that 
has long weighed upon the mind of the country. 

" Accomplished by these means, emancipation will be 
effected in Brazil without creating either a disturbance or a 
financial crisis. And if, concurring with the plan set forth 
above, the government favors the idea of spontaneous emigra- 
tion, and furnishes resources to allow of its development on a 
large scale, the country will enter into a new era, and settle 
its future destinies upon a firm and glorious basis. 

" Instead of an immediate revolution, we favor a slow, 
gradual, and easy transformation of ideas, habits, and the 
mode of labor. It will have been, not a panic, I ut a peace- 
ful revolution, the salutary reform, regularly perfected, of a 
whole nation." 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



20I 



This is certainly a fair and equitable compromise 
between the opponents and the advocates of slavery, 
and, what is of more importance to humanity, it 
makes political ends subservient to the real interests 
and welfare of the negro. Whatever opinion we may 
hold of the deficiencies and vices of the Brazilians, as 
being in many respects in excess of our own, it is the 
result of my observation, and I believe that of every 
one who has investigated the subject, that they are 
generally kind and indulgent masters, treating their 
slaves with much greater leniency than has been prac- 
tised by any other people, among whom the " institu- 
tion" has existed in modern times. 

I can call to mind many touching incidents of the 
kind feelings of masters and servants towards each 
other. Intercession, even from a stranger, in behalf 
of a slave, however much his owner may have been 
provoked, is never in vain. On one of our trips from 
Paranagua to Santos, several runaway negroes were 
put on board, much against my will, by the police, 
with a guard who were to deliver them over to their 
owner. They had deserted from his service several 
months before, and he had been at great trouble and 
expense to get possession of them again. After wan- 
dering hundreds of miles, they had at length been 
captured, and, it may be supposed, were now on their 
way to meet with severe punishment. They evident- 
ly anticipated it, for they appeared so dejected that 



202 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



our interest and sympathy could not but be excited. 
Encouraged by this, they ventured to ask me to speak 
to their master in their behalf, when we should arrive. 
Upon a promise to do so, they rose from their de- 
spondency at once, for they were perfectly satisfied 
that they would be pardoned. 

On hauling in to the wharf at Santos, the master, 
a rather ferocious-looking fazendero (planter), was 
found waiting for his slaves. As he stepped on 
board, I invited him below, and then asked him to 
forgive the runaways. The favor was immediately 
accorded. He gave me his word upon it, and I know 
that he kept his promise. The happy negroes kissed 
my hand as they followed him ashore, and we said to 
each other, " God be with you ! " I think we all 
felt warm under our jackets, and I cannot tell whose 
satisfaction was the greatest — that of the master who 
had conquered his temper, that of the slaves who 
were grateful for forgiveness, or that of one who, at so 
little trouble to himself, was able to effect a recon- 
ciliation. 

And now, in the process of freeing themselves from 
the reproach which modern civilization has laid upon 
slavery, the Brazilians have manifested the same 
spirit of kindness to the freedman of the future with 
which they have hitherto treated him in his condition 
of servitude. Slavery has been so general throughout 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



203 



the empire, that no section of it is ignorant of the 
character, disposition, and requirements of the negro. 
Consequently, there are no zealous bigots there who 
have never had the opportunity to inform themselves 
regarding these matters. There was a strong anti- 
slavery party, but there were few, if any, of its adhe- 
rents who advocated immediate emancipation. There 
were no demagogues who could ride into power upon 
such an issue there, nor was there any disposition to 
use the freedman as a shuttlecock to be knocked 
about by political battledoors. 

The temper of the programme, as given by the 
" Diario," is far different from this. There is evi- 
dently a sincere wish to make the liberated slave a 
useful citizen, if possible. The negro is everywhere 
among the Brazilians. They understand him thor- 
oughly, and have no need to go to Africa to learn 
what Du Chaillu tells us, and what universal ex- 
perience confirms as plain, simple truth, divested of 
all pseudo-philanthropy and political sentimentalism. 

"Whatever may be our sympathy, — primitive man, or 
rather the least gifted tribes of mankind, must disappeal 
before the higher intellect. This is not a theory, but a fact. 
There are many causes to account for the decrease of the 
negro. I think everything tends to show that the negro is of 
great antiquity, and has remained stationary. The working 
of iron, considering the very primitive way they work it, and 
how easily they find it, must have been known to them from 
the remotest time ; and to them the age of stone and bronze 



204 



TEN MONTHS IN BRAZIL. 



must have been unknown. As to his future capabilities, I 
think extreme views have prevailed among us. Some hold 
the opinion that the negro will never rise higher than he is ; 
others think that he is capable of reaching the highest state 
of civilization — in fact, that he will become a white man. 
For my own part, I do not agree with either of these opin- 
ions. I believe the negro may become a more useful member 
of mankind than he is at present ; that he can be raised to a 
higher standard, but that if left to himself he will soon fall 
back into barbarism : we have no example to the contrary. 
Though a people may be taught the arts and sciences known 
by more gifted nations, unless they have the power of progres- 9 
sion in themselves, they must inevitably relapse, in the course 
of time, into their former state. Of all the uncivilized races 
of men, the negro has been found the most tractable and the 
most docile, and he possesses excellent qualities that com- 
pensate a great deal for his bad ones. We ought, therefore, 
to be kind to him, and to try to elevate him. That he will, 
in the course of time, follow the lower races of men and dis- 
appear, I have but little doubt." — Du Ckaillu's Lecture, as 
reported in the " New York Tribune." 

The ability of Brazil to make good her promises of 
compensation to the slaveholders, and to discharge 
her other pecuniary obligations, depends very much 
upon the results of the struggle in which she is at 
present engaged. An expenditure of nearly a hundred 
millions of dollars per annum does not offer a pleasant 
prospect for the holders of her bonds. They, at least, 
will expect to receive their interest, before the holders 
of slaves shall be entitled to the proceeds of a second 
mortgage of the empire. 



205 



NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



THE Appendix furnishes a concise summary of the 
progress of the Paraguayan War to the period 
at which we left the River Plate. The contest has since 
dragged its slow length along, with varied and various 
successes and disasters, until now it is generally con- 
sidered to be closed. When, however, the repeated 
announcements of this most desirable end, that have 
been given with almost monthly regularity, are con- 
sidered, there may yet remain a reasonable doubt of it. 
Reference has been made to the disastrous effects which 
the war had produced on Brazil already. These have 
since greatly increased, and if there is not an actual as 
well as a nominal termination of the strife, the result 
must be a speedy depopulation and bankruptcy of the 
empire. 

It will be seen that, at the commencement of the war, 
the national debt was disproportionate to the resources 
of the country, which, moreover, could not afford to 
lose a single individual from its productive industry. 



206 NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 

The principal revenues of Brazil are derived from the 
customs; indeed, it would be impossible to collect taxes 
from internal and stamp duties, as is done so readily in 
the United States. That nation is even now laboring 
under the burden of a paper currency, which all its great 
resources have not yet been able to redeem. It can 
scarcely be expected of Brazil, that she should come 
out from a struggle, which has been so disproportionately 
severe for her, with a greater ability to meet her debts, 
or to return to specie payments. As in the United 
States, so in Brazil, the system of labor has been revolu- 
tionised. In the one case, slavery has been abolished 
without reference to the benefit or the injury of the 
negro, as a party necessity. In the other, after volun- 
teers and conscripts were exhausted, the negroes have 
been magnanimously freed in many instances, on con- 
dition of going to Paraguay to be killed. The two 
races who have been engaged so long in this unjust 
war, were unequally matched in numbers on the one 
hand, and in physique on the other. The hordes of 
mongrel Brazilians who swarmed upon the River Plate 
were met by a people, few but determined, and possessed 
of such heroic patriotism as is seldom recorded in the 
annals of the world. There is but little of negro blood 
in their veins, for they are descended from the pure 
Spanish race, which disdained the beastly admixture of 
the Portuguese with the blacks, while it added to itself 



NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



207 



the characteristics of patient courage, and, it must be 
admitted, of savage cruelty that belong to the Indians. 

From the time when independence of the Spanish 
yoke was so easily accomplished, in 181 1, Paraguay 
has been the most peaceable of all the countries upon 
the South American continent. It has been nominally 
a Republic, though always spoken of as a Despotism. 
But whatever the extent of liberty which its people en- 
joyed under Francia and Lopez I. and II., they did not 
disturb the liberties of others. The great aim of their 
rulers seems to have been isolation from the rest of the 
world. Unfashionable as this doctrine is at the present 
day, determined as we are that it shall be abandoned by 
China and Japan, it had made Paraguay prosperous and 
contented. Our opinion of the character of Lopez is 
at variance with that which has been so generally 
accorded to him. It is true, that we had not the means 
of judging from personal intercourse; but among all the 
Paraguayan prisoners we met at the River Plate, and 
of those we transported to Brazil, there was not a 
single one who did not speak of him with esteem, and 
even affection. It is impossible that a man who could 
thus succeed in winning the hearts of his people, so 
that every man and every woman among them was will- 
ing to die for the cause in which they were engaged^ 
could be so brutal and unworthy, in all respects, as 
he is represented by his enemies. Such a tyrant could 



208 



NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



not have lived in the midst of thousands of people, who 
are supposed to have been his cringing slaves — such 
slaves who formed a nation of heroes ! 

A glance at the map will shew the position of Para- 
guay, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, and that of the 
Banda Oriental or Uruguay, which three last mentioned 
were united in the war against the first. It will be 
more difficult to explain, to the satisfaction of all, the 
cause of the contest; but it may be summed up, on the 
part of Brazil, in the late convenient and widely used 
term of a " political necessity." The south-western, 
and the richest province of that empire, is Matto Grosso. 
It is so difficult of access from Rio de Janeiro, that a 
person on horseback cannot conveniently perform the 
journey in a month, and the transportation of mer- 
chandise by land cannot be accomplished without a 
difficulty amounting almost to an impossibility. Con- 
sequently, the whole trade has been carried on over the 
waters of the River Plate, and its tributaries, the Parana 
and the Paraguay, which latter passes through the 
country of the same name. 

Complying with the duties and exactions for transit 
imposed upon them, the Brazilians had heretofore man- 
aged to carry on their trade with no slight inconveni- 
ence. Latterly, as their power increased, their arro- 
gance and acquisitiveness augmented in proportion, 
until it appeared a very natural idea that Paraguay 



NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



209 



should be added to their territory, or at least should 
so be disposed of that it should offer no obstacle to her 
commerce. In order to carry out this project, it was 
necessary that an alliance should be formed with the 
other Republics, so that Buenos Ayres and Uruguay 
should aid the ambitious designs of Brazil, rather than 
unite against her, as they had done in times past. Cir- 
cumstances favoured Brazil in bringing about this result. 
In 1864 there happened to be a great deal of ill feeling 
between Buenos Ayres and Paraguay, which was in- 
sidiously encouraged, for. her own purposes, by Brazil. 
In Monte Video, the capital of Uruguay, there had 
recently been an election, in which General Flores and 
his party were defeated. The proper combinations 
having been made, a Brazilian merchant steamer, the 
" Marquis of Olinda," with a governor of u Matto 
Grosso" on board, infringed the Paraguayan laws, and 
was accordingly seized. This, excepting some minor 
provocations on both sides, was the main casus belli. 
Buenos Ayres joined in, according to agreement, and 
a Brazilian fleet gave Monte Video the chance of being 
bombarded, or of receiving Flores for its president, and 
joining the alliance against Paraguay. Monte Video 
had no other resource but to submit, and that, perhaps, 
not very unwillingly. For in her case, as well as in 
that of Buenos Ayres, the war was likely to prove, as 
it did prove, a profitable speculation. 
14 



210 NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



By the implied terms of the treaty, Brazil was to 
furnish all the ships and money, and the great propor- 
tion of the men, and as both these cities became entrepots 
for all sorts of stores, and as they were called upon to 
furnish provisions at remunerative prices, immense 
wealth poured into them, and they could well afford to 
risk their blood, none of which was needlessly spilt. 
If Brazil had invested one-half the treasure she squan- 
dered to enrich these mercenary allies, in constructing 
a railroad to Matto Grosso from her capital, she would 
have saved for herself her mpney and the lives of a 
hundred thousand of her people, which, like the cash, 
she could not well afford to lose. She would, more- 
over, have saved her good name, and the danger in 
which she now is, in her impoverished state, of being 
preyed upon by her late friends. 

In the meantime, Urquiza, the governor of Entre 
Rios, a part of the Argentine Confederation, had pro- 
mised his adhesion to the tripartite treaty. But his 
admirable tactics enabled him to avoid fighting alto- 
gether, and to sell horses, cattle, and produce, to the 
belligerents, to such an extent that his country pros- 
pered exceedingly. The results of the war may thus 
be summed up: Brazil, wretchedly impoverished, but 
with the object gained of a free passage to Matto 
Grosso; Paraguay, with its population nearly exter- 
minated, but the remainder unsubdued, and ready, at 



NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



211 



any moment, on the withdrawal of the enemy's forces, 
to reinstate their cherished leader; the Argentine and 
Uruguay Republics, richer and stronger than even 
They are not sufficiently grateful to Brazil for the 
money she has spent among them, to allow her to 
annex Paraguay. It may safely be predicted that the 
last condition of the Brazilian Empire will be worse 
than the first, and that ere long the four Republics 
will unite to keep her commerce out of their waters 
entirely; so that Matto Grosso, if it does not become 
a conquest of Paraguay, must be approached, as has 
been already indicated, by a railway, to connect it with 
the sea coast. 

From all the evil of war ultimate good will be 
educed for me great dominating race of the world. 
The ways of Providence, though inscrutable in their 
justice, are evident in their designs. Before the Anglo- 
Saxon the Indian of North and South America daily 
retreats, and in New Holland and New Zealand the 
savage is disappearing. Africa remains the home of 
the negro, where he is supposed to roam " free in his 
native wilds/' subject only to be captured and sacri- 
ficed to gratify the cruelty of his chiefs. Climate is an 
insuperable obstacle to prevent us from exterminating 
the natives of these benighted lands, where neither 
sword nor gospel can penetrate. There, at least, until 
some great revulsion of climate arrives, will they exist, 



212 NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 



as their ancestors existed thousands of years ago, unim- 
proved and unimproving. All experience teaches that 
they cannot compete in the battle of life on equal terms 
with white men ; and, therefore, it is a truth, however 
unpalatable, that if they must exist among us, it must 
be as dependents of some sort, if not as absolute slaves. 
In the United States, where they increased more than 
a thousand per cent, in that condition, from the settle- 
ment of the country to the commencement of the civil 
war, they have since lost one-fifth of their number; 
and the Chinese emigration, soon to supply with willing 
laborers the places of the blacks, who will not work, 
will ere long doom the remainder to destruction. 

In Brazil, as has elsewhere been remarked, the hy- 
brids, chiefly composing the population, are an unnatural 
effete people who cannot long maintain their ground 
before advancing civilization ; and in the Southern 
Republics lately engaged in the war, the descendants of 
the Spaniards, although immeasurably superior to the 
Portuguese half-castes composing the population of 
their ally and enemy, are entirely dependent upon 
Englishmen and Americans for all that adds refinement 
to their lives, and for all that gives the semblance of 
progress to their nationalities. There is progress 
among them, but it is for the ultimate benefit of their 
successors. We have paved and lighted their streets, 
covered their rivers with steamers, and opened up 



NOTES ON THE PARAGUAYAN WAR. 213 

their country with railways, one of which, under the 
indefatigable energy of Wheelwright, is now stretching 
itself farther and farther, until it will reach and sur- 
mount the Andes, bringing the rich Pampas, with their 
flocks, herds, and produce, to the reach of the indus- 
trious emigrants who are already populating them. 
All this the great Ang:o-Saxon race is doing, not for 
the benefit of South America, but for the occupancy 
of their own children, who, when all these Canaanites 
shall have disappeared, will enter in and possess the 
land. 



APPENDIX. 



THE MILITARY PROBLEM ON THE LA PLATA. 

f^HE great war of the allies in South America, having for 



tinues. Of the Uruguay contingent of two thousand, not a 
man remains. Five thousand out of the thirteen thousand 
kept in the field by the Argentine Republic have lately been 
absent, and at San Luis have just given the finishing blow to 
one of those internal gaucho revolutions which are periodi- 
cally waged against the urban power of the republic. The 
Brazilians, numbering thirty-two thousand, are patiently 
awaiting the return of the Argentine troops, and the attack 
of a column of eight thousand men, under Osorio, who are 
slowly working their way across the almost impassable wilds 
from Rio Janeiro to the eastern Paraguay boundary. It is 
evident that the allies are gathering their forces for a final 
blow, and we believe if Paraguay stands firm under the assault 
she has nothing more to fear. 

At the opening of the contest General Mitre declared it 
would be a " fiasco militar" and that it would take but three 
months to reach Asuncion. The Brazilians were no less san- 
guine. The expression of these ideas indicated a great lack 
of military talent on the part of the allied generals ; for they 
were to assail a country which occupies an almost impregna- 
ble position relative to the nations around it. East, west, and 
south are streams that will float a frigate, while the northern 
boundary is a vast and impenetrable jungle, frequently over- 
flowed by the freshets of the Paraguay and Parana Rivers. 




overthrow of Paraguay, still con- 



(215) 



2l6 



APPENDIX. 



The bordering territory, both east and west, is a virgin wild, 
while the southern Paraguay margin, selected by the allies as 
the vulnerable point, is a swamp whose deadly malaria keeps 
their hospitals filled with men, who rarely rejoin their regi- 
ments. 

The internal elements possessed by Paraguay for defence 
were scarcely inferior to the external ones which nature has 
conferred upon her. Up to 1810, the foreign and native ele- 
ment had been mingling, until the result was a compact and 
homogeneous people; and the war which the desperadoes 
from the Rio Grande province of Brazil had waged against 
them had given them a desperate schooling, and conferred a 
warlike nature upon the present generation. Francia ruled 
from 1813 to 1840, and was followed by a still ruder despot, 
Carlos Antonio Lopez, who for' a score of years fastened 
firmly the despotism in which Francia had trained the people. 
At the death of Lopez, his son, the present ruler, came into 
power. He found ready at hand a compact nationality, which 
had never known any but the channels which a half century 
of despotism had carved out for it. Foreseeing the present 
struggle, he mobilized the nation, built workshops, founde- 
ries, powder-mills, railroads, fortifications, brought the skilled 
workmen and science of Europe to his aid, and made the vast 
military camp of Paraguay a warlike unit. The country itself 
is filled with almost sufficient natural productions to support 
life, where the people are so simple in their wants and habits. 
Thus the Paraguayan camp of seventy thousand square miles, 
containing five hundred thousand inhabitants, was a formi- 
dable adversary to attack, especially if we consider that there 
is but one vulnerable point in its geographical position — a 
point which, up to this time, the allies have failed to approach. 

Against all this the allies could bring no proportionate 
strength. The overgrown jungle, called Brazil, making war 
on a water line of over two thousand miles in length, has 
been forced to strain its young nerves almost to the breaking. 
The Argentine Republic was already exhausted in her civil 
contests, and Uruguay had been so depopulated in her wars 
that her first effort to maintain a small force in the field was 



APPENDIX. 



217 



also her last. Both the Argentine Republic and Uruguay also 
had to wage war at an immense distance from their base — 
nearly twelve hundred miles. 

The financial condition of the combatants scarcely varied 
from the condition of the other elements of the problem. 
Paraguay, at the outbreak of the war, had a general revenue 
of $3,750,000; verba monopoly, $3,000,000; tithes and land 
rents, $1,950,000; making a total revenue of $8,700,000. The 
floating debt of paper currency was $2,000,000, and of ex- 
ternal debts she had none. Her accumulated wealth was 
immense" for so small a state, and immediately available for 
war purposes. 

On the part of the Argentine Confederation, Buenos Ayres 
had to furnish nearly all the cash that came from the republic, 
however little in amount. Buenos Ayres had before the war 
a home and foreign debt of about $29,000,000, while her reve- 
nues, balanced by her expenditures, were about $7,000,000. 
At the outbreak of the contest, the currency of the Bank of 
Buenos Ayres, which had originally been issued at $17 paper 
to the gold ounce, had already depreciated to $425 per ounce. 

Uruguay was even too poor to give a decent outfit to her 
contingents. The state was already loaded with mountains 
of debt, which had been piled one on the other during her 
civil wars. From her, therefore, the allies could expect only 
what they received — nothing. 

Nearly the whole allied force, then, was to draw on the 
Brazilian purse ; from her were to come the immense expen- 
ditures necessary to carry on war at such a distance, and 
under such adverse circumstances ; but even before the war 
she was heavily loaded with a debt of about $125,000,000; and 
to this she has added, up to the beginning of the present cam- 
paign, some $200,000,000 more. To all this she will add at 
least $50,000,000 before she gets out of this Paraguay trap ; 
and when peace comes she will find that $375,000,000 is a 
very rude strain upon her resources — so rude, indeed, that 
it is doubtful if her revenues can pay the interest upon the 
amount. 

Paraguay then was, as she still is, the superior in point of 



2l3 



APPENDIX. 



finances. To maintain one soldier in the field, it costs her 
twenty per cent, of what it costs the allies, especially the Bra- 
zilians. It appears, then, that internally, financially, geo- 
graphically, and in point of topographical barriers, Paraguay 
was and is a compact unit of force difficult to assail. 

The first combats of Tuyuti and Curuzu, on Paraguayan 
soil, taught the allied army that it had rough work before it. 
Curupaity, a very inferior fortification, and a mere outwork, 
has long held them in check ; this taken, they will find their 
labors just commenced; and at Humaita wild work awaits 
them. The vast swamp into which the allied troops have 
been foolishly thrown is margined by a series of formidable 
earthworks, and they are attacking Paraguay where she is the 
best defended by art and nature. The only vulnerable quarter 
which might have given hope of success was the north-west, 
which was and is undefended and open to attack from the 
Gran Chaco of the Argentine Republic. Moreover, one of the 
parties most interested in the removal of the Paraguayan 
stumbling-block is Bolivia. Had she been properly ap- 
proached by the allies at the outset, a Bolivian contingent 
of ten thousand men would have settled the question long 
since. It is now too late; Bolivia is enriching herself in a 
very profitable trade of war supplies, which she is constantly 
pouring into Paraguay, and which assist in reducing all her 
neighbors to her level. 

It looks as if the allies were waging a contest that long 
since became hopeless. The quicker they close the war by 
treaty, the better; for the unnatural alliance between the 
Argentine Republic and Brazil, were their efforts successful, 
would result in an immediate war between them for the 
spoils, which both consider necessary to their territorial 
aggrandizement and future progress. 




